EFCC Grills 2 Judges, Obanikoro, Arrests Fani-Kayode’s Wife And 8 Month Old Baby

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Surety seeks withdrawal from Metuh’s trial
The Economic and Fi­nancial Crimes Com­mission (EFCC) has widened its anti-cor­ruption dragnet into the ac­tivities of some officials in the immediate past administration and the judiciary.
On Monday, the anti-graft agency took its fight to the doorsteps of former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and two justices of the Federal High Court.
While Obanikoro, who has been declared wanted by the EFCC, surrendered himself to the commission in Abuja, the two judges: Mohammed Na­sir Yunusa and Hyeladzira Aji­ya Nganjiwa were grilled by the commission’s operatives in La­gos over alleged corrupt prac­tices.
The EFCC also yesterday reportedly detained Precious, the wife of former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kay­ode and her eight-month old baby in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Obanikoro, who returned to Nigeria from the United States on Monday, left Lagos for Abu­ja to keep an appointment with the EFFC.
It was learnt that the former minister was accompanied to the EFCC’s office by eight of his associates.
He reportedly arrived at the EFCC’s office in Wuse 2 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at 1pm. At the time of filing this report, Obanikoro was still in the custody of the anti-graft agency.
EFCC’s spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed to journalists that Obanikoro had surrendered himself.
According to him, “the for­mer Minister of State for De­fence is with the commission.”
Before he surrendered him­self, the EFCC had invited Obanikoro over his role in the N4.75 billion arms deal dur­ing the tenure of detained for­mer National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
The commission’s action was on the findings of its investiga­tion of a company owned by two of Obanikoro’s sons: Sylvan Mc­Namara. The two sons are Baba­jide and Gbolahan.
 The company allegedly re­ceived the funds from Dasuki’s office between April 4, 2014 and December 15, 2014.
The operatives, who probed Obanikoro, said that they have documented evidence that the sum of N4.745 billion was paid into the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara, which was incorporated in November 2011.
The commission gave the names of the directors of the company as Ikenna Ezekwe, Id­owu Oshodi and Elizabeth Ad­eniyi.
Sylvan McNamara opened an account with Diamond Bank Plc on May 7, 2016 with Gbola­han, Babajide, Ezekwe and Mat­uluko as signatories.
2 Federal High Court judg­es quizzed
Justices Yunusa and Nganji­wa arrived at the commission’s office in Lagos at about 10:05am to honour the EFCC’s invitation.
Their invitation is sequel to the bribery and money launder­ing allegations the commission allegedly discovered during in­vestigations in a case in which two senior lawyers had been ar­raigned in court.
The interrogation of the judges came a few days after operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) invaded the homes, arrested and quizzed two Supreme Court Justices and five Federal High Court Judges over alleged corruption.
On March 9, 2016, the EFCC arraigned Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN) and Joseph Nwo­bike (SAN) before a Lagos High Court on allegations of “brib­ery and offering gratification to a public official.”
Nwobike and Tarfa are fac­ing criminal prosecution for al­legedly offering gratification to Federal High Court judges to prevent them from exercising the duties of their office.
It was learnt that the EF­CC’s investigation revealed that the two Judges allegedly received sums of money from the two lawyers.
Surety seeks withdrawal from Metuh’s trial
And at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday, Dr. Olugbumi Usim-Wilson, one of the sureties of former National Publicity Secretary of the Peo­ple’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, filed an ap­plication seeking to withdraw as surety for Metuh.
Metuh is facing trial along­side his firm for allegedly re­ceiving N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) before the 2015 presidential election.
The EFCC told the court that the N400 million which it said was released to the defend­ants by Dasuki, was part of the $2.1 billion earmarked for the purchase of arms to prosecute the war against insurgency in the country.
It said the fund was electron­ically wired from an account the ONSA operated with the Cen­tral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Metuh, through account No. 0040437573, which his firm op­erated with Diamond Bank Plc.
Usim-Wilson, in a motion filed and dated October 4, 2016 before Justice Okon Abang, prayed the court to remove her name from the lists of people that stood as sureties for Metuh. She did not give reasons for her withdrawal.
On his part, Metuh also filed a motion dated October 14, praying the court to allow him replace Usim-Wilson with the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
Counsel to Usim-Wilson, Clement Chinaka, prayed the court to take the application for withdrawal before taking that of replacement.
No objection was raised by both counsels in the matter ex­cept for Metuh’s lawyer Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), who observed that if the application for with­drawal was taken before that of replacement, Metuh may stand the risk of going back to prison.
Justice Abang in his rul­ing held that the court needs to take Metuh’s application first since he has been consistent in the trial.
Meanwhile, reacting to the arrest of his wife and eight-month-old baby, Fani-Kayo­de asked the anti-graft agency to face him and leave his fam­ily alone.
In a statement, yesterday, he said: “This government is sick and cowardly and so are the EFCC. If you have a problem with me face me and leave my family alone. My wife travelled to Ado-Ekiti to see my friend and brother Governor Fayose and his family.”
“They were on their way out of town when they went to Ac­cess Bank in Ado-Ekiti to get some money. When they got there, my eight-month-old son, Aragorn and my wife Precious Chikwendu were illegally de­tained, brutalised and put un­der arrest on the orders of the EFCC at a bank in Ado-Ekiti.
“She has never had any busi­ness with me, she has never been formally invited by the EFCC or asked any questions about her transactions and neither have they written to her on any issue, even though they are always sending letters to my house and sending people there. If Buha­ri wants to deal with me, why doesn’t he face me like a man in­stead of trying to harm and hurt my 8-month-old son and wife?”, Fani Kayode said.