Borishade, Fani-Kayode To Remain In Custody

Professor Babalola Borishade, Chief Fani- Kayode and Mr. Rowland Iyayi, who were Monday arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), are to remain in the commission's custody till Wednesday.
Sources at the commission's headquarters in Abuja said that the charges against the detainees would be prepared after their interrogation, which commenced Tuesday morning.
Fani-Kayode and Borishade were the immediate past ministers of aviation in the former President Olusegun Obasanjo's regime while Iyayi is the Managing Director, Nigeria Airport Management Agency, (NAMA).
Their arrest followed the revelations at the on-going public hearing by the Senate Committee on Aviation in respect of the misappropriation of the N19.5 billion aviation intervention fund approved by Obasanjo.
Beside the N19.5 billion, the committee headed by Senator Anyim Ude was so piqued that Professor Borishade was not forthcoming with information about the N2 billion loan which the Rivers State Government injected into the fund.
We gathered that the two former ministers were arrested because of their irreconcilable positions on the disbursement of about N8.5 billion.
While Borishade told the committee in his presentation that he never signed out any money before he was redeployed on November 7, 2006, Fani- Kayode told the committee that his predecessor was economical with the truth..
Fani-Kayode, upon receiving the microphone, said there has been so much disinformation and outright lies on the issue of the aviation intervention fund. He said he had bank statements with him suggesting that the sum of N6.5 billion was withdrawn from Zenith Bank on 1st and 4th September, 2006 during the tenure of his predecessor, Professor Borishade.
“All that I met when I assumed office was N11 billion and not N19.5 billion as my predecessor wants to make this committee believe. He said.
Wondering why the Professor was economical with the truth, Fani-Kayode also said that of the N2 billion from Rivers State, he met only N1.5 billion.
He also expressed shock that N6.5 billion was sourced from the bank, which has led to the loss of N1.3 billion as NAMA pays N222 million monthly servicing the loan.
. Meanwhile Senate Tuesday barred security agencies including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from further arrest of persons within the precinct of the National Assembly.
Apparently miffed by the arrest Monday of two former ministers of Aviation, Professor Babalola Borisade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode as well as the Director General of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Roland Iyayi, the upper chamber said such arrests were capable of scaring away those invited to give evidence before its committees.
The decision of the Senate to stop further arrest of persons within the National Assembly followed an observation raised by Senator Eyinanya Abaribe (Abia State) via Order 15 (privilege of members) of the Senate Standing Rules who complained over the arrests.