By Akinwale Kasali
The Executive Director of Center For Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission, ICPC, to probe former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on allegation of corrupt practices levelled against him by his successor, Governor Seyi Makinde.
Adeniran said that following series of allegations against Ajimobi by Makinde that the ex-governor carted away Government vehicles, funds and other government owned properties, he should be probed by the EFCC and ICPC.
In a letter addressed to the ICPC and the EFCC with copies made available to media houses, the activist said “These vehicles were illegally taken away and were not paid for by those involved. Also, many of the vehicles were never bought by officials of the past administration. There is nowhere in the public service that a governor is allowed to gift public property to cronies like a Santa Claus”.
The letter reads further that; “The Governor also made a claim about his predecessor on the money meant for project which was diverted, what he met on ground was a situation where a project for which money was allocated, got only about 10% of the total funds for execution.
“We also have it on record the statements of governor Makinde’s revelations on how public funds that belonged to the good people of Oyo state were looted and shared by Ajimobi and others: 50% goes back to the Governor, 30% to the appointee who allocated the project out of which 10% goes to the Governor’s wife. His vow to not allow a repeat of such official heist gives cause for support.
“In his resolve to not allow those who looted the treasury of the state go scot free, the incumbent Oyo state governor has vowed to probe the alleged corrupt practice, adding that he would soon establish an anti-graft agency to address mismanagement of public funds. In giving full vent to this, governor Makinde informed on how he has sent a bill to the state assembly to establish an anti-graft agency that will probe the corrupt practices of the past administration.
“It is instructive to note that, Section 7 (1) a and b of the EFCC Establishment Act vested the power in your Commission to, “cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person, corporate body or organization has committed an offence under this Act or other law relating to economic and financial crimes or cause investigation to be conducted into the properties of any person if it appears to the Commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income. We are therefore requesting that the ICPC should cause an investigation of Senator Abiola Ajimobi on the said allegations in line with the power vested in the Commission.
“We therefore have reasons to believe that the matter raised by Oyo state incumbent governor is weighty enough to attract the interest and concern of the two major anti-corruption agencies in the country (the ICPC and EFCC) to warrant a complete investigation and eventual invitation of ex-governor Ajimobi for questioning and made to have his days in court, if he is found culpable as alleged, without any hints of bias.”
