There appears to be more trouble for the Obanikoros as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stumbles on “oil subsidy fraud” involving the family while investigating the role played by Shalewa Obanikoro, daughter of ex-Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro in arms deal fraud. EFCC has frozen a Fidelity Bank account linked to her. Investigators believe that about N1.2bn was channelled through the account, which belongs to an oil firm.
Shalewa, who is a signatory to the account, is accused of personally ordering Fidelity Bank to wire N800m from the account to another account, also with Fidelity.
An EFCC source on Tuesday said, “We have frozen an account in which Obanikoro’s daughter is a signatory. She specifically mandated the bank to transfer N800m from the account to another account.
“We discovered that money was paid into the account at various times. The money came in N50m, N20m, N30m and various sums.
“She said the money was for oil and gas transactions. So, we have frozen the account as investigations continue. We want to know where the funds came from. At least N1.2bn has passed through the account.”
The EFCC stumbled on Shalewa’s suspicious transactions while investigating the N4.7bn allegedly paid into the account of Obanikoro’s two sons – Babajide and Gbolahan.
The anti-graft agency had, last week, interrogated Shalewa and seized her passport to prevent her from absconding to the US, where his father and two brothers are taking refuge since 14 months.
“We seized her passport because we were told that she was planning on travelling soon. We had to prevent her from travelling since she is part of the investigation,” a detective said.
Apart from the N4.7bn arms fraud, MOB Integrated Services Ltd, a company headed by Obanikoro’s second son, Gbolahan, was implicated by the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede-led Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation in 2012 over an alleged petroleum subsidy fraud.
The company allegedly made three transactions worth N5,393,592,906.62. However, investigations later revealed that the company only made one transaction to the tune of N3,261,263,992.52.
The difference of over N2bn was allegedly embezzled as MOB did not supply the oil.
However, sources at the commission told the Punch that after Obanikoro was appointed the Minister of State for Defence, the case was mysteriously suspended indefinitely.
The oil business linked to Obanikoro’s daughter has therefore opened another dimension to the subsidy fraud case.
An EFCC source said, “Obanikoro’s case is very easy to investigate because unlike other politicians, he used his children to carry out most of his alleged crimes. Out of his four children, we have seen suspicious transactions in the accounts of three of them. There is no way these young guys will have billions in their accounts if they were not fronting for their father.”
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