More revelations have been made regarding the alleged N4.7bn money laundering scandal involving a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro.

An official of Diamond Bank, Damola Otuyalo, has told officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that he personally handed over N1.2bn to Obanikoro, and his son, Gbolahan.

Otuyalo, who is the Head of Cash-in-Transit Services, told detectives that his duty was to evacuate excess cash from bank’s branches and move it to locations where money was needed.

The bank official told investigators that on June 16, 2014, he received a call from the Head of Operations and Technology, Mr. Premier Oiwoh, to arrange N1.2bn and pay six beneficiaries.

He said he was asked to pay the following persons: Saturaki Bello N200m; Yusuf Bulama N120m; Chimenum Njoku N250m; Franklin Tolani N150m; Josiah Moses  N280; and Abubakar Sadiq Zanna N200m.

According to Otulayo, he was unable to pay them the money.

His director then instructed him to move the N1.2bn to the private wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on June 17.

“The beneficiaries were not available to be paid as I did not see them and I was later directed by Mr. Premier Oiwoh to move the money to the airport where I will be given further instruction.

“We moved the cash to the airport through the Cash-In-Transit vendor, Bankers Warehouse Limited. I contacted the vendor who made the bullion van available for movement. I personally supervised the loading of the money into the bullion van and escorted them to the airport.”

The bank official further stated, “When Gbolahan got to the gate, he cleared us and we drove in. My boss, Mr. Premier Oiwoh, called me on the telephone and confirmed to me that Obanikoro was the beneficiary of the money.

“I handed my phone over to Gbolahan and he spoke to my boss. Obanikoro came to meet us at the private wing with two policemen and some friends. I recognised Obanikoro very well because he is popular.”

He explained that it took three airplanes to carry all the money.

Otuyalo added, “We loaded the first aircraft with money and Obanikoro flew with his friends on the first flight. The second aircraft was loaded with money but it could not carry all the cash due to the size of the aircraft and the weight it could carry.

“I recall that another aircraft was also used to move the final batch of the money from the bullion van. The second and third movements were supervised by Gbolahan after Obanikoro had left with the first flight.

“The operation took several hours because we got to the airport around 7am and left around 4pm. The cash was bagged in cash bags totalling about 65 and everything was offloaded from the bullion van after which I reported to my boss, Mr. Oiwoh.”