Eniola Akinkuotu and Tobi Aworinde
An official of Diamond Bank, Damola
Otuyalo, has told officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission that he personally handed over N1.2bn to a former Minister of
State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and his son, Gbolahan.
The entire exercise was said to have been captured on a Closed Circuit Television.
According to the EFCC, the N1.2bn was
part of the N4.7bn paid into the company account of Obanikoro’s sons by
the Office of the National Security Adviser during the build-up to the
Ekiti and Osun states governorship election in 2014.
Otuyalo, who is the Head of
Cash-in-Transit Services, told detectives that his duty was to evacuate
excess cash from bank’s branches and move it to locations where money
was needed.
The bank official told investigators
that on June 16, 2014, he received a call from the Head of Operations
and Technology, Mr. Premier Oiwoh, to arrange N1.2bn and pay six
beneficiaries.
He said he was asked to pay the
following persons: Saturaki Bello N200m; Yusuf Bulama N120m; Chimenum
Njoku N250m; Franklin Tolani N150m; Josiah Moses N280; and Abubakar
Sadiq Zanna N200m.
Otuyalo, however, explained that he was
unable to pay them the money and that his director then instructed him
to move the N1.2bn to the private wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport,
Lagos on June 17.
The bank official was quoted to have
said, “The beneficiaries were not available to be paid as I did not see
them and I was later directed by Mr. Premier Oiwoh to move the money to
the airport where I will be given further instruction.
“We moved the cash to the airport
through the Cash-In-Transit vendor, Bankers Warehouse Limited. I
contacted the vendor who made the bullion van available for movement. I
personally supervised the loading of the money into the bullion van and
escorted them to the airport.”
Otuyalo said on getting to the airport
around 7am, he was not allowed into the private wing because he and the
security detail did not have a gate pass.
He said a few minutes later, Obanikoro’s son came to the main gate and asked the security to let the bullion van in.
The bank official further stated, “When
Gbolahan got to the gate, he cleared us and we drove in. My boss, Mr.
Premier Oiwoh, called me on the telephone and confirmed to me that
Obanikoro was the beneficiary of the money.
“I handed my phone over to Gbolahan and
he spoke to my boss. Obanikoro came to meet us at the private wing with
two policemen and some friends. I recognised Obanikoro very well because
he is popular.”
Otuyalo told detectives that due to the
large amount of money involved, it took them several hours to offload
the cash unto the aeroplane.
He explained that it took three aeroplanes to carry all the money.
Otuyalo added, “We loaded the first
aircraft with money and Obanikoro flew with his friends on the first
flight. The second aircraft was loaded with money but it could not carry
all the cash due to the size of the aircraft and the weight it could
carry.
“I recall that another aircraft was also
used to move the final batch of the money from the bullion van. The
second and third movements were supervised by Gbolahan after Obanikoro
had left with the first flight.
“The operation took several hours
because we got to the airport around 7am and left around 4pm. The cash
was bagged in cash bags totalling about 65 and everything was offloaded
from the bullion van after which I reported to my boss, Mr. Oiwoh.”
Detectives told our correspondent that
the N1.2bn was flown to Akure Airport and Obanikoro allegedly handed
over the money to an associate of Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose,
Mr. Abiodun Agbele, who had since been detained by the EFCC.
He added that Officials of Zenith Bank
arrived at the Akure Airport tarmac in a bullion van to convey all the
cash to the bank’s vault located at 13, Alagbaka Estate, Akure.
He also said that the detective, who
presented bank tellers, added that Agbele gave the bank instructions at
different times to pay in money into Fayose’s Zenith Bank account even
after the elections.
He added, “Agbele directed the bank to
pay N137m into the account of Ayodele Fayose with number 1003126654 and
Bank Verification Number 22338867502. The bank teller dated June 26,
2014, was filled by Agbele with teller number 0556814.
“Agbele directed the bank to transfer N118, 760, 000 to the same account and paid in N50m cash into Fayose’s account.
“On April 7, 2015, several months later,
Fayose personally moved N300m to his fixed deposit account at Zenith
Bank with number 9013074033 with his same BVN. The account is domiciled
at 15 Olusola Abiona Street, Estate, Alapere, Ketu, Lagos.”
The source added that on the instruction
of Fayose, Agbele deposited N100m to the account of Spotless Investment
Limited, a hotel which is owned by Fayose and his wife, Olayemi.
Fayose allegedly used part of the money
to buy houses in Abuja and Lagos. The houses had since been seized while
his bank account with a balance of N380m was frozen.
Both Fayose and Obanikoro have denied the allegations levelled against them.
One of Obanikoro’s media aides, Mr.
Jonathan Eze, told one of our correspondents on Saturday that he was
driving and would call back. He was yet to do so as of press time.
When contacted, Head, Media
Relations/Corporate Communications of Diamond Bank, Mr. Mike Omeife,
told one of our correspondents that he could not confirm the report.
He said, “I have not been able to
confirm from the unit what he (Otuyalo) said. I need to get the
information from the unit; I need to get clarifications, and will then,
get back to you.
“This is weekend. I need to get authentic information from the unit before speaking to you.”
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