Afederal high court in Lagos has granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) temporary forfeiture of funds linked to Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, speaker of the Lagos house of assembly.
The EFCC in a motion dated August 12, 2020 and marked FHC/L/CS/1069/2020, asked the court to issue an order directing that the funds in three bank accounts be forfeited in the interim.
According to the anti-graft commission, the three bank accounts are “being investigated for the offences of conspiracy, diversion of funds, abuse of office and money laundering”.
All three accounts which carried the name of the defendant are domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank.
The speaker was invited by the Lagos zonal office of the EFCC on Thursday and he honoured the invitation and is still not left off the hook yet.
EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, had earlier said that Obasa was not arrested but was invited to answer questions and that he was responding to the questions.
Obasa had denied allegations that he mismanaged the funds of the State House of Assembly.
In one interview with Dele Momodu on Instagram, Obasa said “among the allegations they have raised, they didn’t say Obasa stole money, they said he spent money.
“What is the purpose of money? Is it not to spend? But the question, how did you spend this money? Do you have budgetary provision for the money you are spending? Yes.
“Training, seminar are they not part of budget? Festival and all sorts under which you have parties. They alleged we used N258 to print invitation card, is that possible? I don’t even think Dangote will ever do such a stupid thing when the total budget for the programme was N61m.”
