EFCC to Question Fayose’s Wife over Governorship Election Funds

Following the ongoing debates about the legality or otherwise of its order to freeze the personal bank accounts of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to invite the governor’s wife, Mrs Feyisetan Fayose, for questioning.

The antigraft body wants the first lady of Ekiti State  to answer questions about the receipt of about N100 million through an account jointly operated by her and her husband as co-signatories.

According to a report credited to Punch, the anti-graft agency traced the money from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser, to the Zenith Bank account of Spotless Investment Limited. Payment into the account was made on June 17, 2014, less than a week to the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.

The money was paid into the company’s account with bank teller number 0540997 by Abiodun Agbele, an associate of the governor.

The account belonging to Spotless Investment Limited is one of the accounts Zenith Bank in a letter, now in public domain, wrote to the governor to inform him of a freeze order from the EFCC.

An EFCC detective is quoted to have said, “N100m was paid into the Spotless Investment Limited account with number 1010170969 at Zenith Bank. The two signatories are Fayose, with Bank Verification Number 22338867502, and his wife, Helen Olayemi, with BVN 22298990256.”

As a sitting governor, Fayose cannot be prosecuted or arrested because he enjoys immunity. The governor’s wife is however not covered by the constitutional grant of immunity.

Punch further reports that the sum of N1,219,490,000 was allegedly flown to Akure Airport on June 12, 2014, by a former minister of state for defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, ahead of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State.

The money was said to have been part of the N4.7bn, which was paid into the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara by the Office of the National Security Adviser. Sylvan McNamara is a company in which Obanikoro’s sons are signatories.

A large chunk of the N1,219,490,000 was said to have been subsequently paid into Fayose’s private and company accounts, including the N100m, which was paid into the account of Spotless Investment Limited.