EFCC arrests Lagos Speaker over N7bn fraud

According to the petition, he concealed his status as an ex-convict in the form he filed with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the last election where he won a seat to represent Ikeja constituency 2. He also served two terms as a representative of Epe in Lagos State.   EFCC spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, […]

According to the petition, he concealed his status as an ex-convict in the form he filed with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the last election where he won a seat to represent Ikeja constituency 2. He also served two terms as a representative of Epe in Lagos State.

 

EFCC spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, confirmed his arrest to Weekly Trust yesterday saying that the speaker is in the custody of the agency in Abuja. Ikoforiji was said to have been invited by the agency yesterday morning and he was detained after hours of interrogation by security operatives of the EFCC. He was said to have travelled to the United States of America, from where he went on pilgrimage to Mecca, but had to return after he got the invitation to report at the EFCC headquarters.

Excerpts of the petition to EFCC include that Ikuforiji has used his position as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly to collect a monthly running cost of N500 million on a first line charge. In the last 14 months, he was said to have collected not less than N7 billion which he has been funneling abroad to buy properties through proxies and his automobile company called Brown Motors, located at 2, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Maryland, Ikeja Lagos. “That Mr. Ikuforiji committed perjury by denying his record of conviction in his INEC forms submitted in 2007 and 2011, whereas he has been committed twice in the United States in 2001 and 2005.”

It would be recalled that on April 22, 2001, Ikuforiji was first convicted after he was arrested for drunk-driving in Wake County, North Carolina. His record, based on his case was said to be number 2001CR040190 shows that his residence then was 2116 Saturn Street, Raleigh, NC 27603. He was also said to have been arrested over credit card scam totalling $22,731.00 in 2003 while he lived at 9112 Yates Bay, Minneapolis.