Obanikoro Testifies In Court, Says He Gave $5m To Fayose

In a Federal High court sitting in Lagos on Monday, before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, Musiliu Obanikoro a former Minister of Defence for State, has testified that he gave Ayodele Fayose the former Governor of Ekiti State $5m in cash.

Speaking before the court, he said

“NSA told me that Fayose will call me as to how he will receive the money. A total equivalent of $5m from the National Security Adviser imprest account was given to Fayose by the order of NSA,”

Fayose and his company Spotless are standing trials on allegations that he benefitted from N6.9 billion that was siphoned through the office of the former National Security Adviser.

The counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) led Mr. Obanikoro in evidence at the court.

While giving his testimony before the court he said,

“In June 2014, I received a call from Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, when we were approaching the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State wanting to know if there is any message from National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, but I replied ‘no’. Shortly after his call, a message entered from the NSA saying a certain amount of money will be received into the account that was opened to manage Boko Haram threat under my watch as Minister of State for Defence”.

“I had earlier wanted to transfer the dollars so that the naira equivalent can be withdrawn in Ado Ekiti, which was the reason I initially called Diamond Bank MD, but he replied that the bank does not have such capacity in Ado Ekiti for that huge amount of money,”

However, the counsel to Ayodele Fayose applied for an adjournment of the case in other to enable him to cross-examine Musiliu Obanikoro.

Mr. Olaleka Ojo (SAN) counsel to Spotless also joined in urging Justice Olatoregun to adjourn the case so he can be able to confer with his clients on Obanikor0’s testimony.

Justice Mojisola finally adjourned the case to 5th and 6th February 2019.