Aregbesola inauguration: Opening floodgate of probes in Osun

By TUNDE ODESOLA
Sunday, 5 Dec 2010


With the change of leadership in Osun State, TUNDE ODESOLA writes that the new governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has a lot of contentious projects executed by his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, to look into


Damocles was a courtier in the palace of King Dionysius II of Syracuse, Italy. Lusting after power and royalty, Damocles exclaimed that Dionysius was truly fortunate. But the king, in an attempt to teach the courtier a lesson, offered to switch position with him. Damocles jumped at the offer and he was placed on the throne. In his majesty, Damocles, while on the throne in a fleeting moment, savours royalty but when he looked up to view the ceilings, he saw a huge sword held at the tip by a single hair of horse tail hanging above his head!


The Sword of Damocles fell on the three and a half years old administration of Okuku-born Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola on November 26, 2010 when justice flooded Osun State like a rolling river as an Appeal Court in Ibadan, Oyo State, swept the torn and tattered umbrella of the Osun Peoples Democratic Party away. A five-member panel of judges led by Justice Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, including Justices Mohammed Lawal Garba, Paul Adamu Galinje, Chima Centus Nweze, and Adamu Jauro, after a five-hour judgement, returned a unanimous verdict that the April 14, 2007 governorship election in the state was characterised by violence and fraud. The judges ruled that the Action Congress of Nigeria governorship candidate, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, is the winner of the election.


Before the verdict, there had been some topical political issues over which both the then opposition party and the ruling party sharply differed. One of the areas is the acquisition of an N18.38bn loan obtained by the defunct administration of Oyinlola. The ACN had objected to the acquisition of the loan by Oyinlola and described it as a conduit created to siphon public funds. In paid advertorials and news conferences, the Osun ACN had called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the loan. The ACN had warned that it would not repay the loan if it eventually wrestled power from the PDP. Aregbesola, in an interview, had faulted the loan, saying it was callous, scandalous and irritating.


He said, ”How can a state as poor as Osun obtain a loan of N18.38bn with a monthly repayment interest and capital charges of N620m? This means that the state will pay N1.4bn yearly on the loan. The loan is repayable in three years. Here is a state that borrows between N900m and N120m monthly to pay workers salaries and pensions. Can you imagine how the loan was disbursed? I will tell you; the loan was disbursed without the commencement of the projects earmarked. Isn‘t that absurd and wicked? How can you disburse money upfront before a project is done? I constructed gigantic projects in Lagos without mobilising Julius Berger. Lagos State paid after the job was satisfactorily done. If not for ulterior motive and going by the remaining months in their tenure, only N3bn should have been disbursed so far but they have disbursed N12bn. The projects they obtained the loans for are worthless. They say they want to build six stadia; where are the stadia? On every naira the state government is spending on the loan, it is gaining four per cent and losing 14 per cent. What is the sense in that?


Another contentious issue the ACN faulted before it got to power was the bomb blast allegation in which a serving Magistrate, Mr Ayo Oyebiyi, and many ACN members were incarcerated. Some explosives had gone off inside a grey colour Peugeot 505 on June 14, 2007 at the Governor‘s Office Secretariat, Abere, disemboweling an occupant simply named Tunde. Another occupant, Richard Adesanmi, lost an eye to the blast while the third occupant identified simply as Henry fled the scene. The case is still in court as at the time the Oyinlola administration was nullified.


On a number of occasions, the ACN also faulted the construction of drug manufacturing company, in Osogbo, which was commenced but never completed in more than six years. Addressing various news conferences, the ACN alleged that the project was a conduit by which the former government was draining public funds. Defending the projects, however, Oyinlola said the machines needed for the firm have been imported and only needed installation. The former governor also said that drugs to be manufactured by the firm would be customised. The company, which has been under lock and key, is home to rodents and weed. Oyinlola said the firm would be completed very soon.


The lab-less kit project the Oyinlola administration embarked upon to equip Osogbo Technical College, Osogbo, has come under intense criticism with the opposition party alleging that the project is retrogressive. In a recent interview before he became governor, Aregbesola said, ”How can a serious government purchase lab-less kits in this decade when Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the 1950s, equipped all laboratories in the south-west? Lab-less kits are used in situation where there are no kits. Why can‘t we equip our laboratories? Why do we need to buy lab-less kits?”


Other contentious issues between the ACN and the PDP are the Akoda to Kwara boundary road, which unfortunately did not go beyond Old Garage area in Osogbo, and the multi million naira machines for Osun State printing press supplied by a PDP topnotch. The machines did not work for six months before they packed up. The Ido Osun aerodrome which the state government promised to revive never got off the ground despite yearly budgetary assurances just as the ACN said that the various water projects by the Oyinlola-led administration did not serve the masses more than three months. Also contentious was the contract award of Osun State Five-Star Hotel, Abere, whose multi million naira transfer to a foreign firm generated much hoopla. The hotel, which the Oyinlola government initially partnered with a South African firm to develop, was later demolished despite the fact that the state government had spent a fortune to develop it.


A passionate issue, which the Aregbesola government will not gloss over, is the alleged rape of a secondary school student in Ilesa, (name withheld), by suspected PDP thugs on April 15, 2010. Some PDP leaders and supporters in Ilesa, among who are, Chief Gani Oladiran and the Chairman, Ilesa-West Local Government Council, Mr Ibukun Fadipe, have been charged to court over the alleged crime. The teenager was admitted and treated at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. The killing of the Chairman, DHL Nigeria Limited, Chief Ade Komolafe, is another case over which the ACN and the PDP disagreed sharply with the Osun ACN describing the PDP as a nest of killers.


Commenting on the allegation that some members of the former government stole brand-new cars from Government House, Oke-Fia, - upon the annulment of the Oyinlola administration - the Chief Press Secretary to Oyinlola, Mr. Lasisi Olagunju, said cars being driven in or out of Government House were driven by government drivers, adding that government has a record for all its vehicles.


Although Aregbesola has repeatedly warned ACN members in the state against retaliating alleged injustices they sustained during the PDP era, it appears that his government might ruffle some feathers in the bid to put some records straight.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201012050521376

Oyinlola is on its way to Prison,