The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has
frozen an account linked to Shalewa Obanikoro, the daughter of a former
Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
According to EFCC investigators, about N1.2bn
passed through the account which belongs to an oil firm.
Shalewa, who is a signatory to the account, was
said to have personally mandated Fidelity Bank to transfer N800m from the
account to another account within the bank.
A source in the anti-graft agency on Tuesday said, “We have frozen an account
in which Obanikoro’s daughter is a signatory. She specifically mandated the
bank to transfer N800m from the account to another account.
“We discovered that money
was paid into the account at various times. The money came in N50m, N20m, N30m
and various sums.
“She said the money was
for oil and gas transactions. So, we have frozen the account as investigations
continue. We want to know where the funds came from. At least N1.2bn has passed
through the account.”
The EFCC was said to have
made the discovery of Shalewa’s transactions when it was investigating the
N4.7bn allegedly paid into the account of Obanikoro’s two sons – Babajide and
Gbolahan.
The money, which was paid
into the Diamond Bank of Sylvan McNamara, was allegedly shared among Obanikoro,
the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose; and the then governorship candidate
of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
While Omisore is in
detention for allegedly receiving N1.3bn, five properties, allegedly belonging
to Fayose, have been seized while his three Zenith Bank accounts have been
frozen.
A house belonging to
Obanikoro’s two sons in Ikoyi, Lagos, has also been seized. Obanikoro and his
sons have, however, remained in the United States for the last 14 months.
The anti-graft agency
had, last week, quizzed Shalewa and seized her passport to prevent her from
travelling to the US.
“We seized her passport
because we were told that she was planning on travelling soon. We had to
prevent her from travelling since she is part of the investigation,” a
detective said.
Apart from the N4.7bn
arms scam rocking the Obanikoro family, MOB Integrated Services Ltd, a company
headed by Obanikoro’s second son, Gbolahan, was implicated by the Aigboje
Aig-Imoukhuede-led Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation in
2012 over an alleged petroleum subsidy fraud.
The company was said to
have made three transactions valued at N5,393,592,906.62. However,
investigations revealed that the company only made one transaction valued at
N3,261,263,992.52 verified as legitimate.
The difference of over
N2bn was allegedly embezzled as MOB did not make the needed oil supply.
However, sources at the
commission told our correspondent that after Obanikoro was appointed the
Minister of State for Defence, the case was mysteriously suspended
indefinitely.
The oil business linked
to Obanikoro’s daughter has therefore opened a new dimension to the subsidy
fraud case.
A source at the EFCC
said, “Obanikoro’s case is very easy to investigate because unlike other
politicians, he used his children to carry out most of his alleged crimes. Out
of his four children, we have seen suspicious transactions in the accounts of
three of them. There is no way these young guys will have billions in their
accounts if they were not fronting for their father.”
...Punch
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