Osun ex-deputy gov Omisore arrested by the EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who was declared wanted about a month ago.

It was learnt that Omisore was arrested at his Abuja home located at 1 Kainji Crescent, Off Lake Chad Street, Maitama, by a team of EFCC operatives on Sunday morning.

“Upon a thorough search of his apartment, we recovered N1m and $21,000 in cash from him,” a source said.

It was learnt that the suspect was apprehended as part of investigations into the N4.7bn that was siphoned from the imprest account of the Office of the National Security Adviser and allegedly handled by the then Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and his two sons, Babajide and Gbolahan, in 2014.

The commission had alleged that Omisore received about N1.31bn from the money during the build-up to the August 9, 2014, governorship election in Osun State in which Omisore was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The ex-deputy governor allegedly received the funds in four tranches from Sylvan McNamara between July and August 2014, a few weeks before the Osun State governorship election which he lost to incumbent Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress.

A document detailing the transaction showed that the money was paid into three company accounts allegedly belonging to Omisore.

A detective in the anti-graft agency explained, “On July 9, 2014, N150m was paid into the bank account of Sawanara at First Bank. On August 1, 2014, N300m was paid into Sawanara Limited.