The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has frozen an account belonging to Shalewa Obanikoro, the daughter of a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.

According to EFCC investigators, about N1.2bn whose source is unknown passed through the account which belongs to an oil firm.

A source in the anti-graft agency on Tuesday said, “We have frozen an account in which Obanikoro’s daughter is a signatory. She specifically mandated the bank to transfer N800m from the account to another account.

“We discovered that money was paid into the account at various times. The money came in N50m, N20m, N30m and various sums.

“She said the money was for oil and gas transactions. So, we have frozen the account as investigations continue. We want to know where the funds came from. At least N1.2bn has passed through the account.”

According to the EFCC Shalewa’s transactions were discovered when the anti-graft agency was investigating the N4.7bn allegedly paid into the account of Obanikoro’s two sons – Babajide and Gbolahan.

The anti-graft agency had, last week, grilled Shalewa and seized her passport to prevent her from travelling to the U.S.

“We seized her passport because we were told that she was planning on travelling soon. We had to prevent her from travelling since she is part of the investigation,” a detective said.

Also, MOB Integrated Services Ltd, a company headed by Obanikoro’s second son, Gbolahan, was mentioned by the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede-led Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation in 2012 over an alleged petroleum subsidy fraud.

The company was said to have made three transactions valued at N5,393,592,906.62. However, investigations revealed that the company only made one transaction valued at N3,261,263,992.52 verified as legitimate.

However, sources at the commission said the case was mysteriously suspended indefinitely after Obanikoro was appointed the Minister of State for Defence.

A source at the EFCC said, “Obanikoro’s case is very easy to investigate because unlike other politicians, he used his children to carry out most of his alleged crimes. Out of his four children, we have seen suspicious transactions in the accounts of three of them. There is no way these young guys will have billions in their accounts if they were not fronting for their father.”