» EFCC Closes In On Ex-Nigerian Defense Minister Obanikoro & Two Sons Over N4.8B «

SaharaReporters has exclusively learned that two sons of
Nigeria’s former Minister of State for Defense, Musiliu
Obanikoro, are currently on the radar of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a massive
amount of monies transferred to their accounts from funds
budgeted for the procurement of weapons and other
equipment for the country’s military. Two sources at the
anti-graft agency told a correspondent of SaharaReporters
that the EFCC had traced N4.745 billion to the bank
account of Sylvan McNamara Limited, a company in which
the former minister’s two sons, Ibrahim Babajide and
Gbolahan Olatunde Obanikoro, have major interest.
Our sources disclosed that the funds were paid in several
tranches into the company’s account number 0026223714
with Diamond Bank. The sources added that the funds
were paid from an account maintained by the Office of the
National Security Adviser at the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN).
One of the sources revealed that all the transfers were
made between June and December 2014. The period
coincided with the preparations for and the conduct of the
Ekiti State governorship election, ultimately won by
Ayodele Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party.
SaharaReporters had exclusively obtained and released an
audiotaped conversation in which Mr. Obanikoro, Mr.
Fayose, former Minister for Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan,
and a few other PDP stalwarts instructed a top military
officer, Brigadier General Momoh, on strategies for rigging
the election for the PDP governorship candidate by
intimidating supporters of then incumbent Governor Kayode
Fayemi. Mr. Kayode also inaugurated a new campaign
mode he nicknamed “stomach infrastructure,” which
involved the doling out of massive amounts of cash to
voters.
One investigator involved in looking into transfers of funds
to Sylvan McNamara’s account hinted that some of the
cash was routed to Mr. Fayose’s campaign.
For instance, on June 5, 2014, N200 million was transferred
into the account of the firm owned by Mr. Obanikoro’s two
sons. On June 16, 2014, few days before the election of Mr.
Fayose, N2 billion was wired into the account from the
CBN account maintained by the Office of the National
Security Adviser. Another massive transfer, this time of
the sum of N700 million, landed in the Obanikoro-affiliated
account on July 7, 2014. On July 30, 2014, N1 billion was
credited to the firm’s account. Other transfers included
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.
Our sources disclosed that both Gbolahan and Babajide
Obanikoro were listed as directors of the company earlier
incorporated in 2011 by Ikenna Ezekwe, Idowu Oshodi and
Elizabeth Adebiyi. They added that Mr. Obanikoro’s two
sons were also signatories to the company’s account until
2014 when one Olalekan Ogunseye was made sole
signatory.
Our EFCC sources disclosed that investigators had
discovered no contracts to back or justify the hefty
payments made by the Office of the National Security
Adviser, then headed by retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, to
Sylvan McNamara Limited.
Mr. Dasuki and numerous politicians have been indicted for
illicit disbursement of more than $2 billion budgeted for the
procurement of weaponry to empower the Nigerian military
in its counter-insurgency operations against Islamist
militant group, Boko Haram. While Mr. Dasuki disbursed the
defense funds to politicians at the orders of former
President Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian Army suffered
high casualties as Boko Haram fighters attacked and
sacked several military barracks.
The former Defense minister, Mr. Obanikoro, is currently
resident in the US where he is reportedly registered as a
student of history at Oglethorpe University in Georgia, USA.
One of his two sons linked with the massive fraud resides
in Suwanee, Gwinnett County in the state of Georgia where
they own real estate purchased in August 2014.