Pix: Members of the Civil SocietiesCoalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO) during a minirally tagged “Anti-Corruption rally against deceitful Osun Stategovernment under the watch of Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola in commemoration of six years remembrance of Legal luminary and incorruptible human rights activist, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, SAM, SAN”, at the Ikoyi,Lagos State annex office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday.
A group under the auspices of Civil Societies Coalition for the
Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO) has given the reason why the anti-graft body in the land,the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should investigate the alleged financial mismanagement of the administration of Mr Rauf
Aregbesola of Osun State,alleging that there was the cover up of the State government by the leadership of the crime Commission which made it to ignore the previous petitions of alleged financial crime leveled against Aregbesola.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Directorate of Media and Research of the CSCEO and signed by its Chairman,Comrade Adeniyi,Alimi Sulaiman,which was made available to news in Osogbo yesterday,maintained that section 308 of the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,does not cover the Executive arm of government from probe as it covers them from prosecution until they leave office,giving 21 days ultimatum to the Commission to begin the investigation of Aregbesola’s government financial scandal .
Reviewing the submission of its Petition Letter to the Lagos EFCC’s office on Friday,in commemoration of the Six years anniversary of the death of of Legal luminary and incorruptible human rights activist, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, SAM, SAN”, where the
members of the “Coalition” carried placards with different
inscriptions such as; “Aregbesola Ole! Ole!! Ole!!!, EFCC: investigate Aregbesola and his cohorts now, EFCC/Lamorde: Don’t be a toothless bulldog, do your constitutional job now, Osun:Bola Tinubu,tells Aregbesola to bring back our money and Lamorde; treat Osun petitions as a matter of urgency now and don’t destroy your carrier for OSRAP largesse”, where a minute silence was observed for the repose of theLate Chief Gani Fawehinmi, whom they described as a man of honour and integrity while living on earth.
The group disclosed that it submitted the 31 pages petition which include the heap of evidences of financial misappropriation of the State government,detailing how Mr. Rauf Aregbesola in collaboration with his aides, the Local government Executive Secretaries and other local government career officers defrauded the State to the tune of billions of naira and as well as run the State into the bankruptcy,condemning Ibrahim Lamorde led-EFCC.for ignoring the earlier petitions forwarded to the Commission against Mr Aregbesola.
The group however alleged that the immediate past Commissioners of Finance, Dr Wale Bolorunduro, Special duties and Regional Integration, Mr. Ajibola Bashiru, and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Kolapo Alimi with their Permanent Secretaries, Aregbesola’s former Special Advisers on Works,Mr Sabitu Oladepo Amuda and Environment, Mr. Bola Ilori, and all the thirty local government Executive Secretaries with their Heads of Local Government Administration(HLAs) and Directors of Finance(DFs), were collaborators of Mr. Aregbesola in defrauding Osun people of their meager resources through the phantom projects.
He alleged Governor Aregbesola and other of committing the various degree of financial blunders,ranging from inflation of contracts sum, duplication of contracts sum, engage in moribund projects, money laundering, among others, with the sole aim of siphoning the State resources into the private pocket of certain individuals, including Aregbesola’s son, Kabiru,urging the EFCC to conduct proper, thorough and credible investigation into the alleged financial misconduct of Aregbesola’s government from November 2010 to August, 2015 and as well as forensic audit of the Osun State government Account books.
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Comrade Sulaiman who further alleged that Aregbesola began his
fraudulent activities with the criminal and satanic increment of State wage bill of workers, retirees and political office holders alike from N1.3 billion to N3.6 billion ,when no fewer than five(5) thousand workers retired voluntarily from the service of the State government in December 2012,as a result of the Pension Contributory Scheme policy of the Federal government ,maintaining that Aregbesola like now, did not also constitute the members of his cabinet for period of eleven gmonths, but still claiming the same amount of wage bill in the period.
The petition reads in part: “The Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) writes this petition to ensure that the sanctity of truth and rule of law that will bring egalitarian society in allocation of meager resources accrued to the State from the Federation Account as enshrined in the amended 1999 Constitution for the purpose of promoting good government and welfare of all
persons in our country on the principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice and for the purpose of consolidating the Unity of our people.
“The private investigation conducted by the members of our COALITION revealed that the average monthly earnings of the State between the year 2007 and November 2010 was N1,969,622,514.25, while the average monthly earning income of the State between the years January 2011 to December 2014 was at N3,050,074,327,25 and these figures represents Osun earnings from the Federation Account alone and does not include that of Excess Crude Oil fund:N61.7 billion, SURE-P: N14.4billion,Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)
Fund:N13.9billion, Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) fund:
N43.6billion, Value Added Tax(VAT): N? Ecological Fund: N? and
Millennium Development Goals fund: N? (All for the period of 2011-2014 courtesy of budgIT, oagf and fmf).
“Meanwhile, it is on record in the State that since November 2010 till date, all the revenues accruing to the thirty (30) Local governments across Osun State within the period under review were equivalent to that of the State allocation from the Federation Account and this has also been controlled, managed and disbursed by the Almighty Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola.Upon all these gargantuan allocations accrued to the State from the Federation Account to the tune of over Five hundred billion naira (N500billion), Mr. Aregbesola still plunged the State into debt regime to the tune of over five hundred billion naira (N500billion), all in the name of infrastructural development that had Since been abandoned. Today, our State is being referred to as a Debtor State. The accumulated loans were obtained from Infrastructural Bank, Commercial Banks, Bond from Stock Exchange, Sukuk bond and a host of others all in the name of one project or the others that are not feasible and as well become moribund in the State”.
The petition reads further;“That the Commission should begin the immediate probing of all the loans accessed for all the abandoned projects like; Gbongan-Akoda road, Old-Garage –Ikirun- Konta- Kwara boundary road, Classroom buildings, Moshood Abiola Airport and Dagbolu International Market, among other abandoned projects in the State by the present administration of Aregbesola.The Commission should investigate all the loans obtained from Commercial banks in the country, if the purpose of which the loan obtained for were met or not and the total amount of the loan obtained by Mr. Rauf Aregbesola in each commercial bank should be made public.
“The Commission in collaboration with appropriate authority, now, should be properly monitoring the movement of Rauf Aregbesola’s
Helicopter from Government House, Osogbo to any part of the country. The State government under Rauf Aregbesola procured the Helicopter to ferry our commonwealth out of the State to beat the security apparatus on the land, to Lagos State. We have every authority to say that Aregbesola has used the said Helicopter to transfer raw cash of naira from Osun State to Lagos State”.
The group then urged the EFCC to do justice to the every petition received from Nigerian people, particularly, on Rauf Aregbesola’s administration, in line with the part VII (38)(1) of EFCC act-2004,Terrorism and amended Laundering acts(2011),Criminal code(cap ‘C38’) of EFCC with cases and materials, Extras of ICPC &Money Laundering act 2010,law of the federation, Criminal code law with questions and answers for Police College, Freedom of Information Act 2011,the amended National Human Rights Commission Act 2010 ,and the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, believing that the anti-graft body should be impartial and uphold the truth always in dealing with all stakeholders in the country, in order to stamp out the menace of corruption in our land as being the stance of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.