‘They Aplogised For Themselves’ –  Suspended Ogun LG Chairman Insists On Claims Of Funds Diversion

The suspended Chairman of the Ijebu-East Local Government Area of Ogun State, Wale Adedayo, has said the apology rendered to the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, on his behalf by his colleague was inappropriate.

According to him, prostrating to apologise to the governor was not for his sake but for the sake of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).

Naija News recalls that Adedayo, in a letter addressed to a former governor of the state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, had accused Abiodun of diverting statutory federal allocation to local governments in Ogun State for two years.

The LG chairman had also claimed that the governor has refused to give the local government chairman 10 per cent of the state’s internally generated revenue due to them.

An allegation Governor Abiodun has blatantly dismissed, saying instead of diverting, his administration instead augmented the federal allocation for local government chairmen to carry out their duties.

On Thursday, councillors in the Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State announced the suspension of Adedayo as the Chairman of the Local Government for three months over alleged maladministration and financial mismanagement.

The lawmakers said they received various allegations that need to be investigated and asked Adedayo to appear at the next sitting on Thursday, September 14, 2023.

On Friday, the embattled LG was grilled by the Department of State Service (DSS).

However, Adebayo has told The Punch that apologising to the governor would only mean that what he wrote in his letter to Osoba was a fallacy.

The suspended council chairman said the local government chairmen led by the ALGON Chairman, Babatunde Emilola-Gazal, didn’t do that on his behalf. 

He said: “Not on my behalf, it’s on behalf of themselves. If there were fallacies in the letter I wrote to Chief (Olusegun) Osoba, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, then one can apologise, but if those things are factual, then what is the basis for the apologies? If some people went ahead to apologise, then their constituents in their local government (areas) should ask them why they have not been executing projects.

“Why is it that they have not been carrying out their constitutional responsibilities? Where is the money? If they were paid, let them give an account of how much they have collected and spent. If they apologised, that means they have been collecting money.

“So, what is all the noise about local governments not getting money? Tell people what you have been doing with the money, and if there are leftovers, tell the people where they are. I think that is the question we should be asking. If you are apologising, that is an admission of guilt for collecting money.

Speaking further, he said, “I was there, and I was very careful in my aspect, and when it comes to talk of retraction, I won’t retract anything. That’s the fact. However, it was the Secretary to the State Government who first apologised to the LG chairmen because, on the money I told you that Buhari sent and the one President Bola Tinubu just sent, the state government released a statement that they had sent money to local governments, but it was a lie. So, he (SSG) apologised that they released that statement, but that was not part of the story they showed to everybody.

“His apology was not shown to anybody; it’s just the aspect of the local government apologising, but my question is, apologising for what? You don’t need to apologise. If I want to greet an elder in Yoruba, yes, I can prostrate myself, but official work does not require that at all. I have no business prostrating myself to anybody in official matters. So, it is wrong.”