₦airaland Forum

A forensic audit firm, SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government of inserting a total of 8,452 alleged ghost workers into the state’s payroll and paying them a sum of N13,716,914,129.28 annually.

The allegation was made by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, who spoke through the company’s legal counsel, Jiti Ogunye, at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat in Lagos on Friday.

Bakrin-Ottun said the figures emerged from a comprehensive forensic audit and payroll validation exercise conducted for the Osun State Government, which, according to her, revealed pervasive payroll fraud within the state’s civil and public service system.

However, efforts to get the state government’s comments on the allegation were unsuccessful.

The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in the state, Kolapo Alimi, did not answer phone calls put across to him.

Similarly, Governor Ademola Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, promised to send the government’s reaction in a statement when contacted but had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

Explaining how the figures were arrived at, Bakrin-Ottun said her firm was formally engaged by the Osun State Government following a proposal dated January 11, 2023, and was subsequently awarded the contract through a letter dated April 11, 2023, to audit and validate the state’s payroll.

According to her, a formal auditing and consulting agreement was executed on May 22, 2023, mandating the firm to carry out a holistic staff verification, payroll re-engineering and validation exercise covering the civil service, local governments, the State Universal Basic Education Board, the Teaching Service Commission, state-owned tertiary institutions, as well as all state and local government pensioners.

She described the exercise as one of the most extensive payroll audits ever undertaken in Osun State, aimed at verifying all individuals drawing salaries and pensions from the state treasury.

Bakrin-Ottun said the firm conducted the exercise between June and December 2023, deploying 125 personnel both on-site and remotely, and expending over N600m to execute the contract.

“The execution of the contract was very challenging, life-threatening and laden with security threats and bureaucratic subversions, understandably because the audit unearthed pervasive payroll fraud and corrupt practices in the state’s salary payment system,” she said.

Presenting the findings, she disclosed that as of January 2023, the Osun State payroll stood at N4,483,943,105.70 monthly for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners.

Security operatives have arrested officials of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and two officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at an undisclosed hotel in Iperu-Remo area of Ogun State, with a huge amount of money in their possession.

The politicians and INEC officials, who were seen being questioned in a video clip posted on social media on Saturday, were said to have been nabbed at a hotel in Iperu-Remo, Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State.

In the viral video, the INEC officials, a male and a female, and the PDP officers are seen squatting and being interrogated by an unidentified male security personnel.

He disclosed that the arrest of the officials of the electoral body led to the eventual arrest of the PDP officers at a hotel in Iperu-Remo.

The male INEC officer told the interrogator that he was asked by his supervisor to go and collect the cash from the politicians.

Meanwhile, the state PDP Chairman, who introduced himself in the video as “PDP official in Ogun State”, was heard denying his involvement in the alleged cash-for-vote incident.

He said: “You are just showing money; I don’t know anything about it...”

Tragedy struck in the Ipara area of Remo, Ogun State, when a N30,000 car race wager resulted in an accident that left five people, including three suspected Yahoo boys and two residents, dead.

PUNCH Metro learnt on Tuesday from a source in the community, who pleaded anonymity, that the accident occurred at about 2 p.m. on Monday.

According to the source, the suspected Yahoo boys had organised a car racing contest with a N30,000 wager for the winner.

The source noted that during the contest, one of the participants lost control and rammed into a nearby shop, killing two bystanders on the spot.

The source said, [i]“The accident happened yesterday (Monday) afternoon. What I gathered was that some guys suspected to be Yahoo boys organised a car racing contest with a N30,000 wager.

“One of the cars lost control and rammed into a shop, killing two people on the spot, and the occupants of the vehicle sustained varying degrees of injury before they were rescued by emergency responders.”

Similarly, multiple videos of the incident sighted by our correspondent showed some victims lying lifeless on the ground.

Another video showed the damaged building that the car had rammed into and the occupants of the vehicle trapped inside.

Voices of sympathisers wailing about the loss of lives were also heard in the videos, some of which are now being circulated on social media platforms.

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, disclosed that the driver of the vehicle died at the spot while two other occupants sustained varying degrees of injuries and were rescued at different hospitals.

Akinbiyi, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Tuesday, disclosed that the victims died at the different hospitals where they were taken.

He noted that the driver of the vehicle had also died at the scene of the accident.

Akinbiyi said, “At about 13:40 hrs on 11/08/2025, a lone fatal accident occurred near the Owolowo area, Ipara Remo. The accident involved an unregistered Lexus car whose driver’s name was unknown and two other occupants, both male, in his vehicle.

“The accident occurred when the driver was heading outwards Fidiwo, but on getting to the aforementioned point, while at high speed, lost control of his vehicle and rammed into one Akeem Ashiru, male, and one Shina Badejo, by the roadside.

“As a result of the impact, the driver, Akeem Ashiru, and Shina Badejo died at the scene.”

He continued that the two other occupants died at the various hospitals where they were receiving treatment.

“Two other occupants were rescued to the Isara State Hospital, while one also died while receiving treatment.

“The other one was referred to OASTH Sagamu, where he also succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday,” Akinbiyi concluded.

PUNCH Metro reported on Tuesday an accident that claimed a yet-to-be-identified man who was crushed to death by a moving Volvo truck after he fell from a motorcycle along the Rounder area of Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Akinbiyi had told our correspondent that an eyewitness account indicated that the man, who was a passenger on a motorcycle, fell off the motorcycle while in motion, while the Volvo truck that was coming behind rammed into him and crushed his head.

The Ogun State Government has dismissed allegations of political witch-hunting from the former governor and current Senator, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, following the service of demolition notices on several of his properties.

The government, in a statement issued on Saturday, insisted that the notices are part of a standard urban renewal and town planning audit exercise, not a personal vendetta.

The development comes after Daniel’s media office raised an alarm, accusing Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration of a “malicious and vindictive abuse of power.”

Daniel’s team claimed that the notices were issued on Friday, August 8, for his Sagamu private residence, known as The Asoludero Court, and his Conference Hotels Limited.

They argued that the government was attempting to use the Ogun State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2022 retroactively to demolish buildings that were legally constructed long before the law was enacted, with some properties dating back to 2004. This was also linked to a previous demolition of a property belonging to his wife in Ijebu-Ode in 2023.

In response, the state government, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, on Saturday, debunked the claims, describing them as “blatant distortions of facts...”

Akinmade clarified that the notices were part of a development audit being conducted in the Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode Government Reserved Areas, an initiative he said affects many other property owners.

Akinmade said that instead of politicising the issue, Daniel should follow due process.

“All Otunba Gbenga Daniel needs to do, just like every other person in a similar situation, is to present his planning permit and land title to the relevant government agency for verification within the time specified in the notices, rather than resorting to cheap blackmail,” he said.

He further emphasised the government’s position on the rule of law.

“Nobody is bigger than the State,” Akinmade said, adding that “Senator Gbenga Daniel is distinguished, no doubt, but he is not bigger than Ogun State. He should submit himself unreservedly to the same laws he once swore twice to uphold,” he said.

The government’s statement also pointed out that such town planning audits are not new and have been a standard procedure, including during Daniel’s tenure as governor. It concluded by urging Daniel to avoid framing every interaction with government institutions as a personal attack on Governor Abiodun.

Jide Ajia

zeuss:
26 Nigerians were murdered in their sleep very early this morning among them and women and children yet the government will not declare 1 minute of mourning for these innocent victims in bassa plateau state

OlaMiki:
This man is so daft !!!! Fooling himself upandan . God !!!!

ABUJA: Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential election, Peter Obi, has assured his supporters at home and abroad that he will be contesting the 2027 election and is willing to do a single four-year term as president. He also dismissed speculations that he had discussed or had agreed to a joint ticket with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

According to a statement signed by the Spokesman of the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR), Ibrahim Umar, in Abuja, on Monday, Obi expressed these views while speaking on Sunday night, when he appeared on X space to answer questions from his numerous supporters.

According to him, Obi acknowledged being involved in coalition talks because of his desire to rescue Nigeria from the drift by aligning with all patriotic Nigerians.

Obi said, “If the coalition is not about stopping the killings in Benue, Zamfara, how to revive our economy, how to make our industries productive, how to put food on the tables of Nigerians… Count me out. Nigeria is currently at war. We need to do something about it...