Nigeria, Oct 18, 2016 – Former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).
Obanikoro who went into exile in US shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 general election arrived Nigeria at the weekend.
According to SaharaReporters, Obanikoro will remain in detention and would be interrogated on allegations of corruption relating to bribery of army officers, electoral fraud and money laundering involving about N4.7 billion.
“Earlier today, Obanikoro flew to Abuja as early as 8:00 am but refused to show up at the EFCC headquarters as promised. When it became clear that EFCC was going to declare him wanted, he finally arrived at its premises at about 1p.m. Nigerian time.
“An EFCC source told SaharaReporters that the former minister, who had on several occasions dismissed the work of the anti-graft agency, started making contacts about returning to the country when his daughter, Shalewa, was arrested and made some damning revelations about her father.
“The source said Mr. Obanikoro confessed to officials involved in negotiating his return to taking money from the NSA to win the 2014 Ekiti State gubernatorial election at all cost for Ayodele Fayose, but conceded that only N800million made it into his private pockets. He also revealed that out of the money allegedly from the NSA, N1.7million was given to former Senator Iyiola Omisore, while now-Governor Fayose stole the rest”, he said.
