The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Wednesday, accused a businessman, Mr. Gbenga James, and an official of the state government, Mr Goke Olatunji, of using the controversial Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project to enrich Governor Ayo Fayose and his mother.

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Punch Photo File
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose

In a 15-court charge of money laundering brought against the two men at a Federal High Court in Lagos, the EFCC alleged that James and Olatunji made a series of payments from the funds meant for the poultry project to Fayose and his associates.

The commission added that James,who is the Managing Director of Biological Concepts Nig. Ltd and Olatunji, the governor’s personal assistant,built a N9.25million house in Ibadan, Oyo State for Fayose.

The EFCC alleged that the accused did not only buy a N2.1million Mercedes Benz car for Fayose’s mother, they transferred N1.5million to one Chief Boboye Olanipekun.

James and his company, according to the charge sheet signed by Mr. S.K Atteh and dated July 25, 2006 paid N10million being part of the money meant for the poultry project to Fayose.

The charges read:

1. That you, James on the February 19, 2005 with intent to mislead, made a false statement under caution that you did not give Fayose any money out of the money received by Biological Concepts Nig. Ltd for the poultry project;

2. That you, Olatunji on July 24, 2006 with intent to mislead, made a false statement that you did not receive any money from James for onward transmission to Fayose;

3. That you, James and Biological Concepts converted N1.25 million from the amount meant for the execution of the poultry contract, to the construction of Fayose‘s House in Ibadan;

4. That you, James and Biological Concepts expended N9.25 million from the amount meant for the execution of the contract to the construction of Fayose‘s House in Ibadan;

5. That you, James transferred N4 million from the amount meant for the execution of the contract to Avian Specialities Nig. Ltd;

6. That you, James transferred N55, 636,171.15 from the amount meant for the execution of the contract to Avian Specialities Nig.Ltd;

7. That you, Avian Specialities Nig Ltd, collaborated with James and Biological Concepts through the receipt from the said James and Biological Concepts, N55, 636,171.15 from the amount meant for the poultry project;

8. That you, Avian Specialities collaborated with James and Biological Concepts through the receipt of the said James and Biological Concepts, the sum of N4 million;

9. That you James and Biological Concepts transferred N7 million from the project and converted it to £37, 600 and gave it to Fayose and Olatunji;

10. That you, Olatunji collaborated with James and Biological Concepts through the receipt from the said James and Biological Concepts, the sum of N7 million from the amount meant for the project;

11. That you, James and Biological Concepts transferred N7 million from the amount of the project and converted it to $50, 000 and gave it to Fayose and Olatunji;

12. That you, Olatunji collaborated with James and Biological Concepts through the receipt from the said James and Biological Concepts, the sum of N7 million from the poultry project;

13. That you, James and Biological Concepts expended N2.1 million from the execution of the project for the purchase of a Mercedes Benz car for the mother of Fayose;

14. That you, James and Biological Concepts transferred N10 million from the amount of the poultry project to Fayose; and;

15. That you, James and Biolgical Concepts transferred N1.5million from the poultry project to Olanipekun.

The offences are punishable under Section 39(2) of the EFCC Act, 2004 and Section 14 (1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

A firm, Avian Specialties Nigeria Limited, said to be owned by James, was joined as co-defendants to the suit.

The lawyer to the EFCC, Mr Wahab Shittu, had urged the court to allow the charges to be read to the accused.

But the counsel to James and his firm, Adekunle Oyesanya, opposed him on the grounds that he had just been served with a copy of the charge in court.

The lawyer to Olatunji, Mr T. O Durojaiye, aligned himself with Oyesanya.

Shortly after Shittu sought for a short adjournment, Justice Tijani Abubakar fixed August 1 for further hearing of the matter.

He also ordered that the accused be remanded in EFCC‘s custody.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20060727385059



THIS IS WHAT I CALL ACTION GOVERNOR STEALING BY DISGUISE

my broda u can imagine that this is a state that is supposed to not have enough resources to do the basics. He (fayose) was reported to have told obj dat he shd be assisted in building roads by the federal road maintenance agency which baba(wisely) turned down. fayoses reason for the request was dat he did not have d resources from allocation to do dat. you can now c why he doesnt have resources to develope his state, he has reaped the available funds to satisfy his insatiable hunger for agrandisation. you can magnify wat dis petty thief has done to imagine wat ppl like odili,orji kalu,ibori,attah e.t.c have also wrecked within the coffers of there treasury.

nigeria we hail thee!!!!

This Ribadu is the new face Nigeria need to progress. I wish they can expunge the immunity clause the Governors have. cause most of this governor should be in Jail and not riding around with entourage.

Touchee my broda. u r right but d crux of d mata is , will dey do as me n you believe dey shd? or is efcc proved itself as a really independent body dat is unbiased in carrying out its statutory functions? time will tell.

i see no reason why these set of currupt governor should be allowed nto live peacefully in dis country.uuuuuunnnnnnnnnnh any way, who can correct this, for the "beautyful ones are not yet born and the urgly once refuse to live" oniyeye gbogbo, stupid people

It very sad, am from Ekiti, go to Ekti today you would see people blowing his trumpet as if he his a saint.

Well I am from Ondo and I went to Ondo in December, and I was appalled by the condition of living in the state. the only improvement I saw was the road. and even it wasn't constructed properly

I was in Nigeria a few weeks ago, and to my surprise, Ekiti State has been developed much better than I last saw it 2 years ago. Lots of new road construction, dualisation of existing roads with street lights and stand-by generators to power the lights etc.

I really don't see any Governor that has performed as well as this young man, and I am waiting for the full reports of the investigation into these allegations.

Do you know the amount of money coming from the FG has increase since the coming of Fayose, little he those with the overflow people would say is trying, Have you forgotten the big fraud the poultry project, but he would go scot free from EFCC because he plays his card well , thats why i like him

i pity dis country. just read nw dat funsho williams was strangled to death in his study dis morning in lagos. 2007 and its inherent killings has begun. welcome folks to nigerias democracy. corruption,killings et al,

That is not new to me but it is the same old shit government are doing and only God knows who is really serving the people. Have you not heard of of Governor that built refinery outside Nigeria?

Am not suprised because we have all seen it before and it is nothing new.

not like 2007 u havnt

I am waiting for those EFCC critics to show face now.

Is Fayose one of OBJ's enemy? No

In fact, he is one of the closest of the south-west governors to Aso rock.

Let hope Justice is done on this matter.

I keep saying it: THIS COUNTRY WOULD NEED GOD TO PHYSICALLY COME DOWN HERE BEFORE THINGS CAN BE BETTER. [/color][color=#990000] I know that my generation is a wasted one! If you like, continue to deceive yourselves. It's only in Nigeria that a governor would complete a road project and adverts will appear in the newspapers thanking him as if it's not part of his duties. Are public office holders not supposed to serve the people? The elected now feel they are doing us favours by tarring road; providing untreated water; spending billions on a gas turbine project that supplies not more than 5MW; providing free buses to convey students to school where there are no chairs/desks or where the teachers are not motivated; donating millions to churches/other organisations; spending millions on sending christains and moslems on pilgrimage.Sycophancy and hypocricy is what is killing us.

Rottweiler:

I keep saying it: THIS COUNTRY WOULD NEED GOD TO PHYSICALLY COME DOWN HERE BEFORE THINGS CAN BE BETTER. [/color][color=#990000] I know that my generation is a wasted one! If you like, continue to deceive yourselves. It's only in Nigeria that a governor would complete a road project and adverts will appear in the newspapers thanking him as if it's not part of his duties. Are public office holders not supposed to serve the people? The elected now feel they are doing us favours by tarring road; providing untreated water; spending billions on a gas turbine project that supplies not more than 5MW; providing free buses to convey students to school where there are no chairs/desks or where the teachers are not motivated; donating millions to churches/other organisations; spending millions on sending christains and moslems on pilgrimage.Sycophancy and hypocricy is what is killing us.

can't be stated any better.

This is insane just because the roads are better and streets lights, doesn't justify kickbacks and camellion stealing. my philosophy is if this guy are found guilty hang them high, this will send a clear message to other aspirant of public office. Nigeria is changing

if you add all the money that is said to be stolen, it does not amount to over N100million. Again, will EFCC be able to prove a direct relationship between this funds and the executive governor before 2007? From the ways things are going, there might not be continuity after 2007.

I think they already have a case, the Benz his mother got, and the house in Ibadan, the governor is in hot water for right now

The only reason this man(Gov Fayose) has not being arrested is that he enjoys immunity as a serving state governor and of cos becos he is close to baba iyabo dey no wan impeach am for now. Na God go punish all of them including baba iyabo as well na so so select justice dem dey do, soon enough God will avenge

walel that is the most ignorant statement I've ever heard in my life, did Baba Iyabo teach this governor to embezzle?, his aids were arrested for corruption practice, if baba was behind the governor, his aids will never be in jail as we speak, secondly, OBJ did not make the law he is an executive officer as president, if you want to expunge the clause go to national assemble.

Odeku:

walel that is the most ignorant statement I've ever heard in my life, did Baba Iyabo teach this governor to embezzle?, his aids were arrested for corruption practice, if baba was behind the governor, his aids will never be in jail as we speak, secondly, OBJ did not make the law he is an executive officer as president, if you want to expunge the clause go to national assemble.

Thanks so much for your intelligent comment.

I just don't know how people comment like that.

Imagine one member saying "population census was done to help OBJ's 3rd Term bid".

whether d amount mentioned amounted to 100million or nt is nt d issue bt d fact dat state funds have been traced to d govnor through his aide shows a level of corruption by a public officer to enrich himself and family through his personal aides.
a lot of facts will soon be made public

@ odeku na wa oh softly softly yab person which kin loaded statement be that say i make ignorant statement? so now i be ignoramus abi, no vex oh na so una Naija people dey do, instead make u talk say u no agree with me in simple english na abuse u come dey abuse me,No vex oh

When bayelsa Governor chop money dem impeach am carry am lock for prison,when adedibu demand power shift for Ibadan dem remove Ladoja one time when dem catch that man for Jos? dem try impeach am he no work so dem no fit do anything. Lets wait and see what happens to Fayose now wey dem don catch him personal assistants and na him dey take the money build house for we shall see how dem go convict those ones and leave the main beneficiary of the booty alone.

lol fayose is a thief and is in cohorts with tribalistic and nepotic traditional leaders. lol can you imagine, as young as he is. he may be doing some good things, but a thief is a thief

I think the headline by punch is very misleading. If he looted the treasury, N100 million is too small to take. It should be how he looted the poultry.

Waoh, it is quite a pity that anything happens in this country called Nigeria.How could a Governor spend more that 1B naira in a poultry project? Anyway, we should have allowed him to finish everything so that may be some of the chickens could be able to lay tubers of yam while others would lay eggs so that there won't be any need to plant yam again since they produce the too.
Yam and egg.It is a pity.

All the governors deserve to be in the hottest,dinngy,terrible part of efcc cells cooling theirs heels or how do you imagine this stupid guy[fayose]saying it is all because of the 2007 general elections.He is the governor of ekiti state yet he has bill boards all over the western region,HOW COME HE DIDNT HAVE THEM BEFORE BECOMING A GOVERNOR?He should hanged.I pity his wife because time is running out on him.With all the professors and PHDs holders he still manages to fool them all!

Its a pity and so sad that, most of the governors are looters and executive/ glorified 419s !
Imagine stealing by stlye. imagine , a project that is not more than 50million being summed as 500billion !

I just pray hard that, prosecution of all these thieves and public funds converters wont stop cos they are all thieves ! Awon oni je kuje. HABA !

Well all of una when say OBJ no try well make una see things for una self I think he dey bias? make una dey talk from insight.
I wish all the state governors perform with the money wey dem dey collect the country for no be like this today and baba no get right to interfere for the governors matter the people wey suppose make law wey them go take arrest them for post na National assembly. The people wey suppose impeach them na the state assembly so the problem wey we get na the 2 federal houses and state house na im dey cause am no be baba IYabo.

Exactly, its not like OBJ elected the governors, all he can do is speak to them, he has no control over their activities, the house of assemble and the lay makers can impeach this people their are checks and balances in politics, that is what the law makers are there for, and if they are not doing their job, why are people still voting them in, this are the original criminals if you ask me, they have something in their cupboard, that is why they can't impeach all the ruthless governors.

Fayose or whatever he calls himself , he's not fit to rule Ekiti, but it was made possible basically because of Poverty raveling around the nuke and cranny of Ekiti, all because of Water Bribe , Can you believe that , just because of Provision of Water