Indeed, this is not a happy time for the Obanikoros as the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday grilled Shalewa Obanikoro, the daughter of a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, over a transaction of N800m she allegedly made.
Shalewa was grilled by the anti-corruption agency along with her mother, Hajia Morufat Obanikoro.
The anti-graft agency said “Obanikoro’s wife came to our office on Friday morning as part of investigations into the N4.7bn paid into Sylvan McNamara, a company owned by her sons. During investigation, we stumbled on the account of an oil company. We then discovered that Obanikoro’s daughter was a signatory to the account of the oil company and that millions of naira was paid into the account at different times.
“We then invited the daughter and she came to meet us at the office. During investigations, we found out that the daughter gave a standing order to the bank that N800m should be moved into another account. We wondered why such a young girl would have access to such funds so we started quizzing her.
“This is a whole new dimension to the case and we will continue to investigate to find out if it is related to the arms probe or not.”
Obanikoro and his sons, who are citizens of the United States, have remained in the US for over a year. The EFCC swiftly seized the US passport of Shalewa to prevent her from towing the path of her father and brothers.
In addition to the N4.7bn arms scandal engulfing the Obanikoro family, MOB Integrated Services Ltd, a company headed by Obanikoro’s second son, Gbolahan, was implicated by the Aigboje Imokhuede-led Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation in 2012.
