#NotebookGate: Yet Again, Makinde-led Oyo Govt Awards Contracts Worth N694 million to Companies Owned by Cronies

by Olanrewaju Oyedeji

Review of data from Oyo State open contracting portal reveals a now familiar trend of contract irregularities as the state again awarded contracts worth N694 million to persons closely linked to the governor. The Seyi Makinde-led Oyo state government has been linked to several contract irregularities and the “friends and family” pattern of awarding contracts has seen the state award a total of N1.2 billion between 2019 and 2021 to a recurring name, Oriyomi Hamzat and cronies. 

In earlier investigations published by Dataphyte, the Oyo state government violated its Procurement law in the award of contracts worth N998 million. The two-part report also established that the sitting governor of the state, Seyi Makinde may have abused privileges of his office, as contract beneficiaries were linked to him, raising issues of conflict of interest.

A review of the Open contracting portal of the state has revealed yet another abuse of the contracting process by the state in the award of contract for notebook production worth N694 million in 2021.
Thirteen of Fourteen Contracts Awarded to Company Owned by, Linked to Oriyomi Hamzat

Fresh investigations show that on the 23rd of December 2021, the Oyo state government awarded fourteen different contract lots for the production of the now famous notebooks. The contract amount per lot ranged between fifty-million naira to sixty-two million naira.

The notebooks are meant for students of public secondary schools in the state.

The following companies got contracts; Insider Multipurpose Ventures, Sure Etiquette Media Plus Limited, Porsche Diversify Ventures, Icon Printing Press, SEWA International Ventures, JEDA Global Ventures, ASP Integrated Ventures and Landgard Investment Limited.

Review shows that of the fourteen lots; Insider multipurpose ventures got two contracts worth N118 million, Sure Etiquette Media Plus limited got two contracts worth N112 million, Porsh Diversify Ventures was awarded two contracts worth N112 million, Icon Printing Press got two contracts worth N102 million, SEWA International Ventures with two contracts worth N100 million, JEDA Global Ventures with two contracts worth N100 million and ASP integrated ventures had a contract worth N50 million.

Continue reading: https://www.dataphyte.com/latest-reports/public-procurement/notebookgate-yet-again-makinde-led-oyo-govt-awards-contracts-worth-n694-million-to-companies-owned-by-cronies/

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Corruption in low and high places.

Oyedeji’s investigation estimated that the Oyo government could have saved more than N500 million (about US$1.2 million) if it had produced the notebooks at the market rate, instead of awarding the contracts to friends and associates. He also revealed, through a review of the beneficial ownership data, that the companies were owned by the same individual and had existing relationships with the government. In addition, the firms were also officially registered by the CAC on the same day in September — just three months before the contracts were awarded in December 2020.