$2.1bn arms cash: Fani-Kayode to be flown to Abuja for fresh questioning

…As Obanikoro spends weekend in EFCC

Indications emerged last night that the former Director of Media and Publicity of the President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, would face fresh charges over new evidence he collected huge cash directly from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.

Already, the former minister, who was arrested in Lagos yesterday, is to be flown to Abuja to answer fresh charges over a new discovery he personally collected various sums of money from the office of the National Security Adviser without giving the reasons for such draw down.

“We are going to move him to Abuja to answer fresh questions arising from the new evidence that he personally collected various sums of money from the ONSA,” a top EFCC source said last night.

The amount allegedly collected by Fani-Kayode, according to a top source in EFCC, is different from the N4.9 billion, which he and the former Finance Minister, Esther Nenadi Usman, Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust Dimension Nig. Ltd., reportedly collected from the ONSA ahead of the presidential election.

The EFCC has already slammed a 17-count charge against them for taking the money from the public treasury and retaining same without rendering any verifiable service to the nation.

Saturday Vanguard learnt that the former Aviation Minister was whisked away from the court premises as he made to leave after answering to the charges.

“There is a fresh case of various sums of money traced to the suspect, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the N4.9 billion case we instituted against him and others in Lagos.

“We arrested Fani-Kayode because we need him to explain to our operatives why he took the money and what he used it for. It is clear from the records before us that he received the money directly from the NSA.

“From the record before us, one the suspect signed and collected the sum of N26 million for undisclosed purpose and we want him to explain to us why he took the cash in the first place,” the source said

Meanwhile, we learnt also that the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who reported to the EFCC since Monday this week, would spend the first weekend in the commission’s custody, as there was no plan to free him until.

Although Obanikoro has implicated Etiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose and former Osun Deputy Governor, Senator Iyiola Omisore, in his latest statement to the EFCC, the agency made it clear that it was not yet through with the former minister.

“Obanikoro will still be with us this weekend,” a competent source said last night.