PandoraGate: PDP Calls Out Gov Oyetola, Says He Must Be Quizzed

The Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has called on President Mohammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), to immediately set machineries in motion for effective prosecution of Mr Gboyega Oyetola over multi-billion Naira property scandal involving him and his cronies.

Osun PDP also demanded immediate refund of all wages and allowances paid to Mr Oyetola during his time as Chief of Staff to his predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as this according to the opposition party has been revealed that the former had violently disobeyed extant laws of the land while he was the office of Chief of Staff to the then state governor.

The call according to PDP becomes imperative in view of a mind boggling scandal and other several financial infractions perpetrated by the State Governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola as published on October 7 7th of September 2021 by Premium Times, a prominent investigative newspaper in Nigeria.

The party in a statement signed by Hon Ayodeji Areola, State Publicity Secretary, said Governor Oyetola according to the publication, is said to have purchased a London Mansion for a whooping sum of 9million Pounds (Over 6.3billion Naira) from an international fugitive, who has been on the watchlist of governments of United Kingdom, United States and Nigeria.

The acquisition was also carried out in what could be termed an all time record scandal, as the same property is said to be valued at 17million Pounds.

Facts emerging from Premium Times publication show that the government of Federal Republic of Nigeria had secured a freezing order on the same property from a Lagos High Court presided over by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, who around October 2017, dismissed all objections against the freezing order. It was around the same time documents revealed that Mr Oyetola through an offshore company, Aranda Overseas Corporation, which is confirmed to be an offshore company incorporated in the British Virgins Island by two of former Lagos state governor Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s most trusted surrogates – Adegboyega Oyetola, formerly chair of Paragon Group of Companies and incumbent governor of Osun State and one Elusanmi Eludoyin, Mr Oyetola’s successor at Paragon, bought the Mansion in a curiously ambiguous discount deal.

The property is situated at 32 Grove End Road, in the highbrow Westminster neighbourhood of London. The Mansion has also become a sort of mecca to associates of Mr Tinubu including his main surrogate, Gboyega Oyetola and other politicians of the ruling APC, as the former Lagos governor started staying there after receiving treatment from a British Hospital.

“Our party is worried that the period of this fraudulent transaction coincided with inglorious reign of Apc administration in Osun State during which the accused, Mr Gboyega Oyetola held sway as Chief of Staff to the immediate past governor of the state, Rauf Aregbesola. Mr Oyetola, the good people of Osun State must note, was the chief negotiator of the, non productive, multi-billon naira loans infested on the state and which has crippled economic wheel of the state. One then wonders, what the state treasury is presently going through with Mr Gboyega Oyetola as the State Governor.

“This confirms our fears that Osun State had become a conduit, through which public funds are being looted with reckless abandon by Apc gang of heartless political robbers, whose sole business in the state is to bleed it dead with mindless looting.

“We strongly call on President Mohammadu Buhari, who incidentally, had also been a guest at the Mansion presently housing Mr Oyetola’s citadel of corruption, to use his exalted office to clear all doubts about his stance against corruption in Nigeria and bring Mr Gboyega Oyetola and his proxies to justice.

“The good people of our state have often wondered how hundreds of billions of Naira obtained as loans had developed wings such that all projects meant to be executed by the loans remained abandoned without any reasonably explanation.

“Funds meant to offset entitlements of pensioners and backlog of salaries owed the state workforce had also gone to the winds, rendering that class of our people financially impotent.

“We demand full scale investigations into finances of Osun state especially since 2010, when Mr Gboyega Oyetola and other political locusts invaded the state during which humongous financial frauds are perpetrated till date without recess.

“Again, we call on the Code of Conduct Bureau to immediately swing into action and cause all funds dubiously taken by Mr Oyetola as Chief of Staff to the immediate past Governor to be refunded to the state treasury without any hindrance, as it has been revealed by Premium Times publication that he was not lawfully qualified to hold such public office at the time in question.

“That there was no record of resignation as a Director at Aranda Offshore Corporation as at the time he got appointed as Chief of Staff to former governor Aregbesola portrayed the now governor Oyetola as a deceptive individual, whose stock in trade is nothing but fraud.

“We also call on the good people of Osun State to see the current scandal as the true nature of Oyetola and the Apc administration in the state. As a leopard whose skin cannot be shed, the likes of Oyetola and his team of treasury looters can never change from their dubious habit. It is time to ship them out of our dear state with our votes come July 16, 2022 and return them to their familiar lane of corporate scam where long arm of the law awaits them.”