Alhaja Moroophat Onikoro who is the wife of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services in connection to funds diverted from the office of the national security adviser.
According to Sahara Reporters, she was apprehended on Thursday, July 14 in front of her husband’s house located on Layi Ajayi-Bembe Street in Parkview Estate, Ikoyi in Lagos.
Moroophat whose husband has been in the United States since June, 2015 was fingered in the diversion of N4.7bn from the office of Sambo Dasuki, the former national security adviser during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
The DSS source revealed: “We arrested Alhaja Onikoro this morning. Although she bears Onikoro, she is the wife of Obanikoro. She was arrested with some vital documents. She is currently in our office in Shangisha, Lagos, and will later be transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for more investigation.”
It was reported that she was interrogated at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Ikoyi but was allowed to return home on the agreement that she would report back to the EFCC’s office on Friday, July 15.
An EFCC source said: “We released her after interrogation. The woman cooperated fully with us and we allowed her to go because we don’t hold people hostage. We asked her questions and she answered respectfully.”
In June operatives of the EFCC had sealed houses belonging to Obanikoro’s sons, Babajide and Gbolahan, in Banana Island.
The anti-graft agency also raided obanikoro’s house in the same month and took away some documents said to have linked Obanikoro to the N4.7bn.
Obanikoro’s wife was at home during the raid and later accused the EFCC of abusing her rights. She later sued the anti-graft agency for N100m.
“When she sued the EFCC, she thought that would be the end of the matter. Unknown to her, we kept surveillance on the house and swiftly arrested her with the evidence we needed.”
EFCC investigations had revealed that N4.7bn was paid into a bank account of Sylvan McNamara, a company in which Obanikoro’s two sons are said to be directors.
About N1.219bn was flown to Akure on a private plane during the build-up to the 2014 Ekiti State governorship election, which was won by Governor Ayodele Fayose.
Obanikoro has however denied the allegations and said it was a concoction from the EFCC. The senator who has been in the US for over 15 months has dared the EFCC to try to extradite him back to Nigeria.
The anti-graft agency has however revealed that it has CCTV footage that showed Obanikoro and some other persons loading money into a plane in Lagos airport in 2014.
“Let Obanikoro keep making noise in the US instead of him to be a man and come and defend himself like others. He has finished his academic programme in the US since April but has refused to return to Nigeria because he knows he is guilty.
“Obanikoro has put his family in trouble by using his sons to launder money. In this age of BVN (Bank Verification Number), it is difficult to get away with bank fraud.”
0 comments: