by Ajadi Daniel
The EFCC has reportedly obtained a court warrant yesterday to detain Obanikoro and has also seized his passport.
The former Minister made more revelations as his ongoing interrogation in connection to how the N4.745 billion transferred to a company linked to him and his sons by the ONSA was shared entered its third day on Wednesday.
Obanikoro admitted that N1.7 billion was transferred to Sen. Iyiola Omisore, the governorship candidate of PDP in the 2014 Osun state governorship election. He said a total of N3.880 billion was transferred to Fayose and Omisore out of the N4.745 billion that was transferred to the company account of Sylva McNamara. He further stated specifically that he handed over $5.377 million cash to Fayose at Spotless Hotel, Ado-Ekiti in the presence of the former Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party in the state, Tope Aluko.
He revealed that “Out of N4.685 billion transferred to Sylva McNamara Limited, N3.880 billion was transferred to both Ayodele Fayose and Senator Omisore through cash and bank transfers.
“The dollar contents were handed over to Fayose personally by me in the presence of some party leaders and he collected it and took it to the room next to where we were all seated.
“The location where I gave the dollars to him is called Spotless Hotel, Ado-Ekiti. One of the party leaders that were present is Dr. Tope Aluko, who was then secretary of our party, the People Democratic Party (PDP).
“I transferred N1.7 billion to Omisore. The money was paid into his account and companies nominated by him. He gave the list of the companies for the transfer of the N1.7 billion that was released by the NSA to him.
“The funds were therefore transferred as prescribed by Omisore in full. That is to the account of the companies he provided. Details can be obtained from the bank that transferred the money
“I, Musiliu Obanikoro, did not buy or sell any landed property from Sen. Omisore. The National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) did not disclose to me what the funds were meant for neither did I ask or I did not know the source of the funds.”
The former Minister however stated that N785 million out of the money was spent on souvenirs and other items to promote anti-Boko Haram campaign in Lagos. N200 million from the N785 million was spent on surveillance activities, N200 million and other remaining funds were for operations managed by Taiwo Kareem.
Governor Fayose in response to the confession by Obanikoro said that the federal government is bent on implicating him at all cost using the EFCC and other government agencies, he told the federal government to concentrate on hunger and the sufferings of Nigerians and leave him alone to concentrate on governance.
He stated that “Those who arranged the dramatic and compromised return of Senator Obanikoro to Nigeria obviously did so in continuation of their ‘project Fayose must be implicated at all cost’ but I am not bothered because my election was legitimately funded.