CSO Drags Gov Adeleke To Anti-graft Agency Over Alleged Fraudulent Award Of Contracts

– TOM Lacks Integrity To Castigate Osun Governor – PDP

A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations, The Osun Masterminds, TOM, has dragged the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), over the alleged fraudulent award of contracts.

The petition signed by the spokesperson of the group, Ayo Ologun, and received by the ICPC on October 31, 2023, alleged that the 332 borehole sunk by the government was in flagrant violation of the Osun Public Procurement Law, 2015 and thereby appeared fraudulent.

The group alleged that there was no budgetary provision for the borehole and Akoda/Oke-gada road project in the hometown of Governor Ademola Adeleke, saying “Neither did the state take a supplementary budget to the state Assembly nor advertised the projects for bidding before it was awarded.”

In a petition titled: Fraudulent Award of Contract by the Osun State Government,” the group urged the anti-graft agency to probe the governor and the permanent secretary, the Ministry of Works on why the company to whom the contract was awarded was not arrived any bidding at all, not even a “restricted bidding.”

“The company to whom the contract is awarded is not known to have any “special skills, experience, and proven track record over some time,” as stipulated in the Law.

“It is not established or in any way justified by the state government that the projects can be constructed by only a limited number of contractors, and that the engaged contractors are one of the said limited number of contractors, and that bids were invited from such limited number of contractors, as required by the Law.

“The state government parades a group of people and tags it the State’s Public Procurement Agency, but the purported ‘Agency’ is without the supervision of the Osun Public Procurement Agency Governing Board (“the Board”) to validate the Agency’s existence and operations, as required by the Law.

“The “No Objection/Due Process Certification” purportedly issued by the “Agency” as now bandied by the state government, obviously to paper over her failure to follow the mandatory
the procedure laid down by the Law is unknown to the State of Osun Public Procurement Law, 2015 (which is the state’s extant law governing the subject of this petition),” the group said.

TOM also urged the commission to seek to know the relationship between governor, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Work’s with the largest shareholder in the companies named for the two projects under searchlight, adding that it is ready to appear before the commission to defend the petition if need be.

The Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Osun State, Hon Ayodeji Areola in a reaction advised members of the group to live within the means of their ratings and not overhype their usefulness.

The PDP said elements in the CSO are too inconsequential in integrity and clout to injure the growing popularity of Governor Ademola Adeleke after those who they pitched their tent with in the last governorship election.

Areola said: “Elements in the masterminds should be reminded that Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke of Osun State towers above their irritating method of seeking attention or creating occasional impressions to dig out their usual target crumbs.

“Without fear of sounding arrogant or immodest, masterminds components are too inconsequential in integrity and cognitive clout to injure the growing popularity of a political institution like Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State. When they openly pitched their tent against the election of his Excellency last year, they sank with their tent.

“We make bold to say that none of the elements in the group of adult beggars is close to what they arrogate to themselves. Brutally scavenging around should not be a life of professionalism and that is why their noise can only be deafening in their own room.

“While the PDP administration will be waiting for the anti-graft agencies being dangled around by the unemployment induced jesters, our great party, the PDP will continue to support Governor Ademola Adeleke’s robust quest to address the infrastructure deficit in the state.

“The masterminds are enjoined to enrich their protests with the fact that the infra-plans will exceed even the hundred billion naira mark, as other phases of developmental projects are already being mapped out. Therefore, their petitions should not be limited only to the 100 billion phase, they should project into the future.

“True stakeholders in the state have been consulted before His Excellency made public his infra plan. The likes of masterminds are not close to reckoning in terms of consultation of this administration because those who made them consulting partners only ended up as failures,” the PDP reiterated