Operatives
of the Department of State Service DSS, yesterday, arrested the wife of the
former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, over ongoing
investigations into how her husband and two sons collected and laundered over
N4.7 billion from the national treasury in 2014.
It was learnt that the DSS had been working in collaboration with the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to track the movement of Obanikoro and
his associates linked with the transfer of the huge sum from the Office of the
National Security Adviser, ONSA, to firms linked to them.
Mrs. Obanikoro, whose
husband was declared wanted only last month, was arrested in her Lagos home as
she allegedly attempted to make away with vital documents related to the N4.7 billion
case.
The woman allegedly sneaked into Nigeria with
the sole aim of ‘evacuating incriminating documents’ from her home only to be
whisked away by eagle-eyed security men who had been trailing her as she
arrived the country from abroad where she was staying with her husband and
children.
It was learned that the assistance of the DSS sought to arrest
Mrs. Obanikoro as a result of the large number of armed policemen guiding her
and her home in Lagos.
“The truth is that she had so many policemen around her
and we decided to seek the support of a sister agency to arrest her as she came
in to clear the ‘cobweb’,” a top source explained last night.
It will be
recalled that operatives of the EFCC had on June 14 raided Obanikoro’s Lagos
home in continuation of investigation into the N4.7 billion that was traced to
two of his sons.
The amount in question was paid in many tranches from the ONSA
account with the CBN into Sylvan McNamara Limited in Diamond Bank with account
No. 0026223714, which they allegedly have interest.
Of interest to the EFCC is
the fact that all the transfers were done between June and December 2014, a
period that coincided with the preparation for the Ekiti governorship poll
which brought Governor Ayodele Fayose into office.
A breakdown of the payment
showed that the sum of N200 million was transferred into Sylvan Mc Namara’s
account on June 5, 2015, while N2 billion was also wired into the account from
the CBN/ Imprest Main account on June 16, 2016.
Similarly, another transfer of
N700 million landed on the account on July 7, 2014, while N1 billion was
credited to the account on July 30, 2014. Other inflows into the account in
question were: N160 million on August 8, 2014; N225 million on August 22, 2014;
N200 million on November 14, 2014 and N200 million on December 5, 2014.
“Both
Gbolahan and Babajide Obanikoro, directors of the company, were also
signatories to its account until 2014 when one Olalekan Ogunseye was made sole
signatory to the account.
EFC is furious that the payments to the company from
the office of the National Security Adviser were made without any valid
contract between it and the Federal Government.
Labels: Babajide Obanikoro, DSS, DSS arrest Obanikoro's wife, DSS arrested Senator Musiliu Obanikoro's wife over ₦4.7 billion, Gbolahan Obanikoro, Mrs Obanikoro arrested, Obanikoro's wife arrested over N4.7bn
