By David Orji
A former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, on Wednesday, told Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, how the inability of a defunct commercial bank (Diamond Bank) to disburse huge sums of money prompted the airlifting of N1.219billion cash to former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose for the governorship election in the state.
Obanikoro said that he did not know the source of the money and that he only got the information on the money from the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd). He told the court that it was the former NSA that contacted him that the said money had been paid into the account of Sylvan Mcnamara Ltd.
He said, “I was a minister under Jonathan administration in 2014. Sometime in 2014, we were going to have an election in Ekiti State. I was saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the activities in the election.
“Some days before the election, I got a call from Governor Fayose asking me if I received any message for him from ONSA. I can recall that prior to that, we had some activities among which was fundraising for the purpose of that election. When Mr. Fayose called, I told him I would call him later. I had a phone conversation with the NSA, and was told he would get back to me. After, he got back to me that N2.2billion was paid into the account of Sylvan Mcnamara Ltd.
“The money came from the NSA. I can’t vouch for the source of the funds. Only the NSA can explain the source of the fund.
“I handed over the N1.219million cash to Agbele for onward delivery to Fayose. I did not take any money or N19million, contrary to a publication by a Lagos-based online platform.”
Obanikoro further stated that “the account was created to deal with the issue of Boko Haram in Lagos, the account was created by Taiwo Kareem and was used for the purpose of disbursing funds for election.
“I put a call through to let Fayose know that the money had been paid. Diamond Bank had said it did not have the capacity to make the funds available. So, we opted to airlift the funds. The funds were airlifted from Lagos in two tranches, the volume was much.”