The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has traced N1.310bn to some company accounts allegedly belonging to a former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
The money was said to be part of the N4.7bn allegedly disbursed by a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and his two sons, Gbolahan and Babajide.
The N4.7bn was said to have emanated from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2014 and then transferred to the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara, a company in which Obanikoro’s sons are the signatories to its bank account.
Omisore, who has since been declared wanted by the anti-graft agency, allegedly received the funds in four tranches from Sylvan McNamara between July and August 2014, a few weeks before the Osun State governorship election which he lost.
A document detailing the transaction showed that the money was paid into three company accounts allegedly belonging to Omisore.
A detective at the anti-graft agency explained, “On July 9, 2014, N150m was paid into the bank account of Sawanara at First Bank. On August 1, 2014, N300m was paid into Sawanara Limited.
“On August 8, 2014, about N160m was paid into the bank account of Fimex Gilt Limited domiciled at UBA. On the day of the election, August 9, 2014, N350m was paid into the First Bank account of Metropolitan Consortium.”
Omisore had, however, denied receiving any money from the ONSA.
Speaking in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, on Wednesday, Omisore said the Federal Government was out to nail him and other members of the opposition at all cost.
He said, “I don’t know Dasuki from Adam. I never went to his office. The Federal Government is just using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to victimise and embarrass me.
“They had said I received N600m, they later said N1.9bn, now they are saying n1.3bn. Which of these figures do they want to pin on me? They have kept shifting the goalposts at will.”
The former deputy governor had also sued the EFCC for N10bn and prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to grant him an order of perpetual injunction restraining the “defendants (the EFCC) either by themselves, their agents, officers, servants, privies or otherwise however called from making such or similar defamatory publication of and concerning the plaintiff (Omisore) to any person or persons.”
Meanwhile, the sons of Obanikoro on Wednesday shunned the invitation of the EFCC.
The anti-graft agency had last week stormed the home of Gbolahan and Babajide and seized the property located at 10 Mojisola Street, off Banana Island Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
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