According to the spokesperson of the commission, Mr. Femi Babafemi, the Speaker, who was invited by the EFCC over two weeks ago, surrendered himself to the commission at about 10 O’clock, local time and is still being questioned at the commission’s office in Lagos.
Reports also have it that a petition which was forwarded to the EFCC by an anti-corruption activist alleged that Kuforiji is being questioned for lying on oath in his INEC form that, he was not convicted while in the United States for some offences.
Some of the allegations made by the group against the speaker include:
i. That Mr. 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 has 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.
ii. 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.
Its also been reported that Ikuforiji was first convicted in 2001 after his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol on April 22, 2001 in Wake County, North Carolina. His court record with case number 2001CR040190 shows that his residence then was 2116 Saturn Street, Raleigh, NC 27603.
The Lagos House Speaker was also, according to records in 2005 convicted again for a $22,731.00 credit card fraud he had committed in 2003. The Hennepin county district court records have it that Ikuforiji as at the time he committed the crime lived at 9112 Yates Bay, Minneapolis MN55443. He was said to have duped the Columbia Credit Service Inc which reported him to law enforcement agents over the $22,731.00 fraud. He had lived with one Omolara Cole as his wife and Abdul as their son before their marriage was dissolved on August 30, 1999. He was eventually convicted on August 3rd, 2005 in case number 27-CV-05-009568.
Ikuforiji whose records in the USA showed that he was born on August 15, 1958 however had a different record about the institutions he claimed he attended in Romania.
According to reports, in one of his school files in Romania, he claimed to have been born on August 24, 1954, in another Romanian school record, he claimed he was born on August 24, 1956.
Ikuforiji, according to the EFCC lied under oath in his INEC form CF001 submitted to the electoral body while contesting for the Epe constituency 1 seat in the Lagos House of Assembly in 2003 that he never had a criminal record before. He equally gave a different version of his date of birth as August 24, 1958, bringing to four the dates of birth in the speaker’s records in USA, Romania and Nigeria.
Culled from Channels TV.
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