How Governor bought Lagos, Abuja houses, EFCC uncovers fresh facts

dimeji akinloye

July 19, 2016 5:28 AM

The EFCC says it has now discovered that the two houses in Abuja were bought with bank loans from Skye Bank and Zenith Bank, to make the source of the money look legitimate on the surface.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has uncovered how the Ekiti State Governor,

An associate of Fayose, Mr. Abiodun Agbele, who is currently in EFCC custody, had allegedly received N1.219 billion from a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, on behalf of the Governor during the build-up to the Ekiti governorship election in June 2014.

The anti-graft agency alleged that a large portion of the money, along with some money from the Ekiti State coffers, was used to buy Fayose's Abuja and Lagos properties, with Agbele as the frontman.

The EFCC says it has now discovered that the two houses in Abuja were bought with bank loans from Skye Bank and Zenith Bank, to make the source of the look money legitimate on the surface.

However, the stolen money, the Commission says, was used to offset the bank loans.

“From the Dasuki funds, they had about N300m stashed in one account. However, when they were going to buy the N270m property located on Yedseram Street, they did not use the N300m from the stolen funds. Rather, they obtained a loan of N120m in the name of Spotless Hotel from Zenith Bank to deposit for the house," an EFCC investigator told Punch.

“They then took about N150m out of the Dasuki money to pay the balance on the house and then used the same Dasuki funds to offset the loan. They went through all this stress to cover their tracks and make it look as if it was a bank loan they used in buying the property.

“Why did they take a loan that would be gathering interest when they had more than enough money to buy the house?”

According to the source, when they wanted to buy the four duplexes in Lagos, Fayose and Agbele were alleged to have overpaid the seller of the houses and then told the seller to use the balance which was N200m, to pay for another house in Abuja.

“The worth of the four duplexes in Lagos is N1.1bn which was sold by Still Earth Nigeria Ltd. However, Fayose and Agbele paid Still Earth N1.3bn in cash and then told the company to transfer the balance of N200m to Skye Bank. It was that N200m that was used in purchasing the building at 44 Osun River Crescent, Abuja. This was done so that no one would be able to trace the fund to them,” the investigator said.

Another N60 million has also been traced to a Diamond Bank account - BYKD Consultant Limited - owned by Agbele, the EFCC says.

READ: Arms Scam - 'I flew Obanikoro with HUGE bags of money to Akure,' Pilot reveals

The account reportedly received some funds from Ekiti State local governments under the heading, Millennium Development Goals.

According to Punch, which sighted a copy of the statement of account, about N18, 159, 050 was paid into the account on February 18, 2015. On the same day, about N15, 319, 650 was paid into the same account while about N11, 238, 500 was deposited into the account on the same day among other transactions.

Agbele, according to the transaction history, paid about N40 million and N15 million into the account of Affordable Motors.

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