The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, has returned the sum of 100 million Naira to the Nigerian Government.

Spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, on Thursday confirmed the payment to Channels Television.

He said the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, rejected the initial offer and demanded that the former Minister signed an undertaking to pay back the sum of 600 million Naira within a stipulated time.

But the former minister rejected, claiming he had no means of raising such amount.

In the meantime, the EFCC has begun the verification of payments as interrogations continue.

Obanikoro voluntarily reported to EFCC three months after his invitation by the anti-graft agency. He returned to the country on Monday from the U.S. and proceeded to an EFCC facility.

The EFCC has said that it has proof that Obanikoro received a total of 4.745 billion Naira from the office of the former National Security Adviser between April 4, 2014, and December 15, 2014 through companies belonging to his sons.

Mr Obanikoro had been in the United States since 2015 after the general elections, where he said he was pursuing leadership and language courses at an American university.

The 2015 election saw his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), unseated at the centre.

•Excerpted from a Channels TV report. Photo shows Obanikoro.