EFCC Interrogates Pilot Who Flew N1.299b Cash For Ayodele Fayose, Musiliu Obanikoro

A pilot has told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) how he flew a former Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, with N1.299 billion cash for Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Capt. Ahmed Bashir Borodo said the cash was wrapped with green military tarpaulin bags before it was loaded onto the chartered aircraft registered HS125-800 5N-BMT, owned by Gyro Air Limited.

He said the bags were so heavy that only three people could carry one at a time.
Also, the General Manager of Gyro Air Limited, Mr. Jide West, has disclosed that about $25, 200 was paid for the two chartered flights from Lagos to Akure and Akure to Abuja.
EFCC detectives grilled Borodo and West at weekend, The Nation learnt.
The session was part of the ongoing probe of Fayose for allegedly receiving the N1.299billion slush funds from Obanikoro through his associate, Abiodun Agbele.

About N4.745billion was paid into Obanikoro’s company Sylva Mcnamara’s office by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for the 2014 Ekiti governorship.
The slush funds had been traced by EFCC to Obanikoro, Fayose, three firms and a former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Otunba Iyiola Omisore. Borodo said he only flew the plane in line with the directive of his airline’s management.

He said: “On the 17th June 2014, I was advised around 0700 hours by my Flight Operations Department that we would be operating a chartered flight to Akure from Lagos with estimated departure time of 0830 hours.
“The client was Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State for Defence at that time.
“I arrived at the airport at about 0730 hours to prepare for the flight along with my colleague, Captain Olubiyi Famuyiwa and cabin attendant Uyi Okoro. Minutes later, the minister’s aides came to the aircraft with some bullion vans. They started offloading the contents, which were big green tarpaulin bags. Military bags precisely.

“The ADC to the minister was dressed in Navy uniform. This is all I can state now.”
The pilot recalled that the bags were so heavy that three people carried one. He said: “When we noticed that only about three people could carry the bags because of the weight, we told them that because of the weight, we could only take about eight to nine bags.

“The minister who had disembarked at that time from his vehicle pleaded with us but we said our aircraft was too small to carry all the bags. We loaded the bags. The minister, his ADC and a friend boarded the aircraft and we departed to Akure , Ondo State.
“ When we arrived at Akure Airport, some soldiers came and there was a bullion van as well to carry the baggage. We departed empty to Lagos on the 17/06/14. On the 18th of June 2014, we were sent from Abuja to Akure to pick Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro and take him to Abuja. He boarded without any luggage with his ADC and we proceeded to Abuja to drop him.”