A Diamond Bank official, Damola Otuyalo, has revealed before the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission how he personally handed over
N1.2bn to a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu
Obanikoro, and his son, Gbolahan.
He further said that the entire exercise was captured on a Closed Circuit Television and cannot be denied.
Investigation by the EFCC reveaked that 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.
In a report by Punch,
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.”
Explaining further what happened at the private wing after he
arrived to dispatch the money, Otuyalo said because he and the security
detail did not have a gate pass they could not gain entrance.
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.”
He further revealed that because of the large amount of money
involved, it took them several hours to offload the cash unto the
aeroplane. He also said 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.”
According to a Punch source, a detective revealed that after the
N1.2bn was flown to Akure Airport, 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.”
It was further learnt that Agbele was instructed by Fayose to
deposit 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment