EFCC cooking evidence against me, Obanikoro cries out

A former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of plans to manufacture evidence against him.

According to the former Senator, the EFCC is planning to forge receipts using blank signed letter headed papers carted away from his Lagos home when operatives of the anti-graft agency raided it.

Obanikoro stated this in a statement issued on Friday evening by his media aide, Jonathan Eze.

The statement reads in part: “Recall that when the EFCC illegally raided my houses in Lagos, they went away with various documents which included blanked signed letter headed papers as testified in the Affidavit sworn in Court.

“It has however come to my notice that the EFCC has allegedly written an acknowledgement on one of the document purportedly as evidence that I collected the equivalent sum of one million dollars in cash from a Bureau De Change and signed for it.

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Obanikoro, who is away from the country, insisted that such is a lie, wondering how anybody would sign for money changed at a Bureau De Change.

He also claimed he never collected money from any BDC throughout his stay in office as minister.

“I urge the public to ignore the EFCC who are trying to skew up investigations in its favour.

“The EFCC has obviously betrayed public trust by its latest sinister plan of manufacturing receipt in my name. Instead of genuinely carrying out its mandate, it has been grossly overshadowed by political wiles,” the former minister said.

Obanikoro is being accused by the EFCC of collecting N4.7 billion from the embattled former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki.

The commission reportedly said in a document detailing allegations against Obanikoro: “The owner of A.A. G. B. S Oil and Gas confirmed to us that the company is a BDC but was only bearing the name of an oil company. He confirmed that he received N168m from Sylvan McNamara and $1million was delivered to Obanikoro in cash while he was the Minister of State for Defence based on the exchange rate at the time.

“Obanikoro acknowledged receipt of the cash and we have recovered evidence.”

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