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Oyinlola vs Akande: Osun�s epic battle
WHEN the Peoples Democratic Party took over the reins of power in five out of the six states controlled by the Alliance for Democracy in the South-West zone of the country, one feature most watchers of political events looked forward to was the probing of the immediate past administrations. But this was not to be. Some of the PDP governors even went ahead to say that instituting a probe of their predecessor was going to be a distraction and a waste of time.
But things appear to be changing very fast barely a year after the change of batons in some of these states. The PDP governors are looking into the books to uncover alleged wrongdoings by their predecessors. One of such states is Osun State where the incumbent, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has vowed to expose some irregularities spotted in the execution of the construction of the Governor�s Office, popularly known as the Bola Ige House, by the administration of Chief Bisi Akande.
In the last two weeks, both Oyinlola and Akande have been engaged in a war of words. SEMIU OKANLAWON, who has been following developments in the State of the Living Springs, spoke with both men. Excerpts:
Which of the contacts awarded at the tail end of your administration would you say could be a possible source of fraud or controversy?
I never awarded any contracts towards the end of my administration, particularly since the election. But by the middle of my administration, I commissioned consultants to prepare the land for a new Governor�s House. The plan came out just before the election. And for that, I awarded the contract to the contactor who had built more than 80 per cent of the total job in the secretariat and whom we knew to be very reliable. We awarded the contract to him. But because we owed him 30 per cent of the cost with which he built the secretariat, we decided to give him an advanced payment, which would not be more than the debt we owed him on that contract. We gave him a contract worth over N1 billion and we were owing him 30 per cent by the time of election. And when we awarded the Governor�s House contract to him, he asked that we should pay the balance. The agreement originally was that we would pay the balance over a period of 10 months. He wanted us to pay him that balance before we left. And we said okay let�s give you an advance payment around what we owed you so that if you run away with our money in the left, we would gain it in the right. Minus that, I never awarded any contract.
There were some projects reportedly given out towards the end of your administration�
Not by me. Not by my government. It was the contractor.
But the buck stopped on your table as the governor according to the incumbent�
Because he (Oyinlola) is an illiterate in civil administration. If I give you a job for N100 and you sublet the job to different other people, how does that your action - you are not my employee, you are my contractor, and you in turn employ carpenters, bricklayers and so on - how does the buck of the work of those you employed stop on my desk? Anybody who is sensible about contract award would know that for how much he buys any of those things is none of my business. The only thing that is my business is that the contract price should not exceed what was originally the price.
What about sundry contracts such as furniture awarded at a cost of N30 million, name tags for N2 million, landscaping for N23 million?
Those are sub-contracts. They are not contracts we awarded. The contract for the Bola Ige House is a little over N800 million. And it is out of that N800 million that all these things would have to be done.
At what stage did one Architect Lanre Oladeji, who was said to have implicated your government, come into the picture?
From the beginning, he designed the Bola Ige House. But I don�t know him as a financial manager and I never made him a coordinator of the fund of Bola Ige House. There is another company, Archy Consults, who was supposed to be the coordinator of the finances of all the projects in the secretariat. How Tropics Consults of Ladeji became the spender of the money was not referred to me as the governor. But according to the statement of the Permanent Secretary, it was done by default, without the approval of the governor.
Oyinlola also alleged that despite the money spent and the contracts awarded, the commissioning was just a deceit as the complex was not yet fit for human habitation?
It depends on what anybody calls human habitation. I spent the last six weeks of my term in the house.
May be because you built it?
Well, it�s one of those things. Even if you built a house for yourself, by the time you get there, you still have to be putting right a few things. There is no house in the whole world where, when you move in, you still don�t have one or two things to put right. We have awarded contract for what I would call water project. That is, doing our own dam, make our own water-head, and then reservoir, which will serve that house. But before that contract of water project was completed, we relied on the water corporation�s water. There are 12 or 13 buildings in the complex. If it could be habitable for others, why is it not possible for Oyinlola to stay in Bola Ige House?
What percentage of the work had been completed by the time you left?
I would say 95 per cent. It cannot be less. Although, I didn�t go round the complex - you know it is so massive. An old man like me, it would take three weeks to go round the whole building - but the report given to me by the consultant and the civil servants who were managing the thing, the whole building was almost completed. The only thing that had not been properly put in place were furniture, fittings and fixtures. And we had some electricity problems. We relied heavily on the National Electric Power Authority and had three generators. These generators are there and the idea was that if there was NEPA, we all would enjoy electricity and if there was no electricity from NEPA, there was a generator that would give all of us electricity. But if that has a problem, there is another generator that would give the major offices of the governor electricity. And if that fails again, there is another one for the governor�s office electricity. So, I don�t know why he could not use the place. But he is a prince. I am a commoner. Go and look at the house he decorated. He decorated it with as much money as it cost me to build the Bola Ige House. The Government House where he is now, it had been built, roofed, plastered, windows had been put, electricity had been done, water system installed, when he came, he did the painting and supplied the globe with as much money as it cost me to build the entire Bola Ige House. The Governor�s House is not five per cent of Bola Ige House.
Did your government have any problem with Oladeji who was said to have indicted you in his statement to the police?
As an architect, no. But as a manager of money I don�t know because I did not ask him to manage money at all.
But what of the reports from civil servants involved in the project?
I didn�t receive any report. That was why I was shouting. That was why I refused to pay the money, which Oyinlola paid. Oyinlola said that I approved a variation. It is true I approved a variation.
How much was that?
I cannot remember. I approved the variation, which is not common in my government. But when the pressure was too much, I approved it and said this money should not be paid until all the accounts and the report would be ready, which were not ready before I left. When Oyinlola came, he revalidated my approval and made the payment. He is now accusing me of approving what he revalidated and the money he paid. Go and ask him, did he take a kickback? Or was that why he paid when the account was still in the middle?
Don�t you suspect some principal officers of your government could have done certain things without your knowledge?
It is not possible. They cannot do wrong things because the control was so elaborate that it was not possible. Civil servants can because they are the controllers. The system I created does not make it possible for any of those officers to be able to outwit anybody to be able to take money away from them.
How did you meet Ladeji, the man at the centre of it all who said he contributed N85 million to your campaign?
Met, yes. But I had never had any dealing with him. When he was making the drawing of the Bola Ige House, he was being led to my office by Gbenga Adebusuyi, my Special Assistant. He was leading him to me to explain what he had done on the contract. But since the plan was approved by the executive council, I didn�t have any dealing with Ladeji anymore.
How come the claim then?
That claim by Ladeji was dubious. He must be a dubious man. I was told that the same Lanre Ladeji was procured to implicate Prof. Oluwasanmi at Ife University about 30 years ago. He can still be purchased to implicate anybody.
Could you let us into that?
The story was that Prof. Oluwasanmi, the Vice-Chancellor, or let us say the University of Ife awarded a contract of a building. Along the line, the building collapsed. Then, an inquiry was asked to be conducted into the collapse by the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo. And that time, they called it Akanbi Commission, coincidentally, the same (Justice Mustapha) Akanbi of the ICPC. Oladeji was procured as the architect to implicate the Vice-Chancellor. So, it is possible that the same Oladeji is procured to implicate me this time.
The Punch, Friday July 16, 2004
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