Sensitive documents have been discovered in the house of
former Osun state deputy governor, Senator Iyiola Omisore
by the EFCC.
Some informants in the anti-graft agency stated that a
document revealed how N60billion was voted for
extraneous overhead spending for some members of both
arms of the National Assembly in the Sixth Assembly
Senator Omisore was the chairman of the Senate
Appropriation Committee between 2007 and 2011.
The EFCC is carrying out an investigation into the
contents of the document in order to find out the
legislators who got the said money.
A source from the anti-graft agency who preferred to be
anonymous stated that when detectives went to ransack
Senator Omisore’s home, they discovered the “budget
padding” document in his bedroom.
The source said the former deputy governor joined issues
with officials of the EFCC requesting why they were
interested in the said document.
The unnamed person stated: “In the course of searching
Omisore’s residence at 1, Kainji Crescent in Maitama,
Abuja, we stumbled on a document on budget padding
worth about N60billion for some Senators and House of
Representatives.
“Immediately we picked the document, Omisore was a bit
concerned. He asked our operatives to limit their
investigation to only the N1.310billion from the Office of
the National Security Adviser (ONSA) but we insisted that
we are interested in the document.
“It contained a list of budget padding of about N60billion
and how it was spread for some Senators and members of
the House of Representatives from 2007 and 2011.
“A crack team is already looking into the details of the
padding of the budget and the affected Senators and
Representatives.
“Certainly, as a former chairman of the Senate Committee
on Appropriation, we expect him to speak on the
document.
“The fact that Omisore proved difficult before we arrested
him has actually paid off for EFCC. His stubbornness has
assisted in opening new investigation frontiers. If he had
honoured our invitation as a gentleman, we might not
have been able to get these new areas of investigation.”
The anti-graft agency wants to get to the end of the issue
as it has written to the management of the National
Assembly to state why it paid N2.5billion to the former
deputy governor.
The letter is coming after the EFCC found the strange
remittance in Omisore’s account by the management while
he was a senator.
On the other hand, the management while reacting to the
EFCC said the former Senator was not awarded any
contract or engaged for any service to have warranted
such a payment.
In a follow-up letter, the EFCC told the management to be
more “forthcoming on what the N2.5billion was meant for
to have earned remittance into the account of the ex-
deputy governor.”
The management of the National Assembly has up till the
end of this week to clarify the “purpose of such a huge
payment” to Senator Omisore.
There were indications that the commission may quiz two
former National Assembly and Senate Clarks as well as
and some management members of staff in the Finance
Department, including directors.
According to EFCC findings, the unusual payment of
N2.5billion was discovered when the screening of
Omisore’s transactions was done in the course of
investigating a N1.310billion illegally allocated to the
deputy governor and three companies by the office of the
national security adviser.
The source further said: “We were able to detect that the
sum in question was transferred from the Skye Bank
account of the National Assembly to Omisore’s account.
“We got a letter from the management that Omisore did
not at any time execute any contract for the National
Assembly or offer any service to be able to earn such a
payment.
“We have written another letter to the management to
explain why the money was paid to Omisore. We want
those in the relevant desk behind the payment to guide the
EFCC accordingly.
“We are expecting a detailed response from the
management of the National Assembly, including vouchers
for the payment and authorisation. Once we get their
response, we will invite those connected with it.
“This was why we secured a court warrant to detain
Omisore to get to the roots of this latest payment.”
About two weeks ago, reports had it that the EFCC froze
the bank accounts of Senator Omisore, a former deputy
governor of Osun state along with two sons of Senator
Musiliu Obanikoro, a former minister of state of defence