Banker reveals how N1.2b allegedly collected by ex-minister was shared

chika ebuzor

October 27, 2016 8:31 PM

Alade was the EFCC's prosecution witness during Agbele’s trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Ex-Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro

An official of Zenith Bank Plc,

According to Punch, Alade alleged that an aide of Governor Ayo Fayose, Abiodun Agbele, distributed the money himself.

The Zenith bank staff was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC's) witness at the Federal High Court in Abuja, during Agbele’s trial.

Also, the Zenith bank branch manager in Akure, where Obanikoro allegedly airlifted the money to, Wahab Shittu, said “I first met Agbele on June 17, 2014. On that day, my zonal head, Abiodun Oshode, informed me that he recieved a message from Lawrence Akande, the Zonal Head of Oyo State Branch of Zenith Bank that a customer will be coming to the bank from the airport with cash. He said that I should arrange for our bullion van to be taken to the airport to convey the cash when it arrives.

“After about an hour, Oshode walked to me that the customer is in the bank and I followed him to his office where he introduced Mr. Abiodun Agbele to me as the customer.

“Agbele told me that they had security details and that I should not bother about policemen since they had enough. That was how I, my Zonal Head, the bullion van driver, Agbele and his team drove to the airport.

“When we got to the airport, we waited for some minutes before the aircraft arrived. When the aircraft offloaded its passengers, one of them appeared to me to be Senator Musliu Obanikoro and the other one appeared to be his ADC, Adewale.

“Agbele walked up to them and had a discussion with them. Thereafter, he signaled me to bring the van. Bags loaded with cash were evacuated into the van and Obanikoro’s ADC, I and Agbele drove back to the bank.

“When we got to the bank, we bundle-counted the cash and it was N724,500,000. Agbele told us that more money was still coming and then, Obanikoro’s ADC left for the airport immediately.

“In the evening, all of us left for the airport a second time. After the passengers disembarked, we offloaded the cash bags into our bullion van and drove back to the bank to ascertain how much the cash was.

“The second tranche was N494,990,000, bringing the total about N1.219, 490,000

“We headed straight to our zonal head office where instructions were given by Agbele on how the funds were to be credited to various accounts.

“However, because of the amount involved, we needed to detail-count before crediting the accounts the next day. All these are recorded in the statements I volunteered to the EFCC.”

Obanikoro recently admitted to the EFCC that he handed over N2.3bn to the Ekiti state Governor, Ayo Fayose in the run-up to the Ekiti governorship election.

chika ebuzor