EFCC arrests Governor Fayose’s ‘best friend’ over N4.7bn fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
has arrested a man, whom it described as the
best friend of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti
State.
The suspect, Mr. Abiodun Agbele, it was learnt,
allegedly helped Fayose to handle over N1.219bn
during the Ekiti State governorship election in
2014.
The money was said to have been part of the
N4.7bn that was siphoned from the imprest
account of the Office of the National Security
Adviser and deposited into the bank account of a
company belonging to the sons of a former
Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro

The PUNCH had reported last week that the
EFCC alleged that Obanikoro conveyed about
N1.219bn on an aircraft and handed it over to
Agbele for onward delivery to Zenith Bank.
Agbele was said to have collected the money on
behalf of Fayose and paid the money into the
account of Fayose, who was the governorship
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party at the
time.
According to five Zenith Bank deposit slips made
available to our correspondent, Agbele made
deposits of over N900m into his own company
account and Fayose’s own.
On June 26, 2014, Agbele made a deposit of
N137m into a Zenith Bank account, with Account
Number 1003126654, belonging to Ayodele
Fayose with teller number 0556814.
On June 17, 2014, Agbele also deposited N100m
into Account Number 1010170969 belonging to
Spotless Investment Limited, a company owned
by Fayose and his wife, Feyisetan.
On June 18, 2014, Agbele also made a deposit of
N219, 490, 000 into the account of De Privateer
Limited with Account Number 1013835889 and
teller number 0505890. The company allegedly
belongs to Agbele. On June 19, 2014, he also
made a deposit of N300m into the same account
while a third deposit of N200m was made into
the same account on June 23, 2014.
“Agbele is an associate of Fayose. We are
currently looking for him because he has a lot of
explanations to make. He held some of the
money in trust for Fayose,” the EFCC source
said.
In his reaction, Fayose admitted that Agbele was
a trusted friend who paid money into his
account.
He, however, maintained that the money came
from the management of Zenith Bank and private
donations.
He said, “The management of Zenith Bank, which
majorly funded my election, called me to a
meeting where I was assured that the fund
would be provided for my election. I was asked
to nominate a trusted ally to be related with and
I nominated Mr. Abiodun Agbele.
“All the payments into Abiodun Agbele’s account
domiciled in Zenith Bank were directly from
Zenith Bank. In actual fact, the account was
opened by Zenith Bank hurriedly at that time and
Abiodun Agbele’s identity card, which ought to
have been collected before the account, was
opened, was only collected last week in the
bank’s desperation to perfect the account
obviously after submitting to the intimidation
and harassment of the EFCC.
“Most of the funds posted into Agbele’s account
were through the Ibadan, Akure and Lagos
branches of the Zenith Bank and sometimes, they
brought cash.”
Agbele’s account with Zenith Bank has since
been frozen by the EFCC as well as those of
Fayose and his company.
In a statement on Monday by Fayose’s Special
Adviser, Public Communications and New Media,
Mr. Lere Olayinka, the governor condemned the
arrest of his friend.
Fayose maintained that his campaign was
funded by Zenith Bank and not the ONSA.
The statement read in part, “Our attention has
been drawn to the arrest of Mr. Abiodun Agbele
by the EFCC and we wish to say that we
encourage the EFCC to carry out its
investigations without politics, as it is being done
now.
“It must be pointed out that at no time was Mr.
Abiodun Agbele invited by the EFCC, and if he
had been invited, he would have honoured the
invitation. Therefore, there is nothing to celebrate
in his arrest if it is not political.
“As already pointed out, Governor Ayodele
Fayose does not have anything to do with any
fund from the ONSA. He has stated how his
election was funded and Zenith Bank that he
said funded his election has not denied doing so.
“Also, the person said to have been arrested is
an adult and will defend himself when the time
comes. Subjecting him to media trial, as the
EFCC has been doing since the inception of this
government, will only give our adversaries
momentary sense of joy.
“We await reports of the EFCC investigations and
we hope that the anti-corruption agency will be
civil enough to allow an open and transparent
trial in a competent court of law and not media
trial just to get at Governor Fayose because of
his uncompromising stance against the misrule
of the All Progressives Congress/Buhari-led
Federal Government.”