N126m Fraud: Arrest Warrant Slammed on Ex-Gov Akande
'It's a plot to tarnish my reputation'
From Hammed Shittu in Osogbo and Ndubuisi Ugah in Lagos
An Osogbo chief magistrate has issued a warrant of arrest to the police to produce former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, for his alleged role in the defrauding of the government to the tune of N126 million while in office.
Akande, however, said the allegation was a plot masterminded by his successor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, to tarnish his reputation.
According to the warrant dated July 2, 2004, the former governor was alleged to have conspired with three others to defraud the state government of N126 million from the implementation of the Bola Ige House Secretariat Complex.
The others linked with the fraud were the former Secre-tary to the State Government, Alhaji Sola Akinwumi, former Commissioner for Finance, Chief Lere Adebayo and a consultant, Architect Lanre Oladeji.
It was gathered that the money was meant for the purchase of accessory materials meant for Bola Ige House built by the Akande administration.
Sources close to the police in Osogbo yesterday said the said amount was allegedly paid to one Lanre Oladeji, a consultant in the project who is being treated as the prime suspect in the fraud.
Sources added that the police had invited all the people involved including Akande and they made necessary statement on the issue.
Contacted yesterday, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mr. Emmanuel Obiakor, who confirmed the development stated that his men have been inviting the former governor to show up on the matter but to no avail.
He said that several telephone calls to Akande had proved futile as he was no where to be found.
He therefore declared that, "as soon as Chief Akande and others showed up they will appear in court of law."
The state governor, Oyinlola could not be reached for comment on the developments as he was said to have lost one of his senior brothers and currently at his home town, Okuku.
However, Akande, in a three-page statement addressed to Oyinlola yesterday, which included a two-page statement he made when he was invited recently by the police, said he was compelled to write the governor owing to events which made it explicit that "in essence, I can conclude that you are behind all these recent orchestrated attempts to tarnish my reputation and bring me to ridicule simply to portray me in bad light to the public".
He noted that Oyinlola could not have claimed ignorance to the fact that he was recently invited by the police over the alleged misappropriation of funds, and that the invitation by the police followed a recent media report which alleged that an "Ex-Gov" was involved in a "N180 m Fraud".
He noted that his convinction that Oyinlola was behind his travails was informed by recent developments which pointed to the fact that "on Monday, 23rd February, 2004, you telephoned to inform me that one Lanre Ladeji was in your office to ''confess'' that he contributed eighty-five million naira (N85m) towards my re-election as Governor in the April election of 2003. While I strongly denied the allegation, I warned you to desist from giving access to dubious characters who wish to malign my integrity. I then advised you to handle the matter as you might deem appropriate".
He added that the former Finance Commisioner and Secre-tary to the State Government, Chief Lere Adebayo and Engr. Sola Akinwunmi respectively were being interrogated and harassed by the police, and that the erstwhile Permanent Secretary, General Services, Mr. Francis Olatoye and Oladeji were also made to write statements to the police over the alleged misappropriation.
"Above this, I am aware that these people and yourself, as Governor of Osun state, later assembled at the police station to discuss the issue. It is instructive that none of these manipulation and arm-twisting could produce any useful evidence to make Chief Lere Adebayo and Engr. Sola Akinwunmi liable", he said.
Akande said he has had cause since then to discuss with Oyinlola and his Commissioner for Finance on the procedures adopted in the financing of the project which make it difficult, if not impossible, for any political office holder to commit fraud.
Akande said he noted with special interest, the alleged media report which stated that the ex-governor in question "is known for his acidic criticism of President Olusegun Obasanjo." He added that he was now convinced that developments subsequently pointed to the fact that "some people were determined to bring me into disrepute in the public eye".
"May I recall that in my address at the commissioning of "Bola Ige House" on 24th March, 2003, it is true that I made an allusion to the profligacy of the PDP-controlled Federal Government when I stated, inter-alia, that the highlight of the PDP-controlled Federal Government's Universal Basic Education Programme was the award of contract for the construction of a 3-classroom block for N4.6 million which worked out at N1,534,000 per classroom. At this time, my government was building a primary school classroom on the terms of the Federal Government at N520, 000", he alleged.
He maintained that in like manner, the secretariat complex which his administration built could be said to be equal 6,000 standard classrooms which, could have cost N10 billion but yet his administration built it with less than N3 billion.
"It can now be safely assumed that the powers in Abuja were piqued by this revelation and have since been looking for any possible way to malign me.
"My administration successfully exeecuted and completed over 500 projects among which 'Bola Ige House' was one. None was abandoned. It will therefore amuse any discerning mind that this Bola Ige House project is now being put into controversy with a view to ridicule the memory of the slain Attorney General of the Federation of Nigeria.
"An independent valuer would put the true cost of 'Bola Ige House', which I built for less than one billion naira, at about three billion naira. If my administration had intended to defraud the state on the project, what stopped us from awarding the contract for two billion naira and appropriate one billion naira to our private purse as presently being done instead of colluding with the consultants to steal only eighty five million naira?
"I wish to conclude, Your Excellency that your disposition to this matter has tended to deliberately drag the office of Governor into the mud, whereas, it is certain that you will also become a 'former governor' someday," he said.
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