{"id":445292,"date":"2011-06-22T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/22\/osun-and-a-legacy-of-unending-controversy\/"},"modified":"2011-06-22T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T06:00:00","slug":"osun-and-a-legacy-of-unending-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/22\/osun-and-a-legacy-of-unending-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Osun and a legacy of unending controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

TUNDE ODESOLA writes that controversies have continued to trail projects inherited by the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, from his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinola.<\/span><\/p>\n

When power suddenly changed hands on November 26, 2010 between the Peoples Democratic Party and the Action Congress of Nigeria in Osun State, there was no controversy over how much the ousted government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola left in the state\u2019s coffers. This was due to the fact that the financial account of Osun, under the watch of Oyinlola, was in the red. The state was borrowing to pay workers\u2019 salaries and complete infrastructural projects. A day after the Justice Clara Ogunbiyi-led Appeal Court panel sacked Oyinlola from office on November 26, 2010, the ACN governorship candidate, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, at his unprecedented crowd-pulling inauguration froze all accounts of the state. He said the freezing of the accounts was to enable his administration to have a holistic view of the earnings and spending of government during the Oyinlola years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aregbesola, on several occasions, did not hide his disdain and shock over the circumstances surrounding the borrowing of N18.3bn from the United Bank for Africa, the decision of the erstwhile government to construct six stadia and the management of the multi billion naira Free Trade Zone project.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this light, the 54-year-old governor, on January 7, 2011, inaugurated a 10-member committee to review some projects by the Oyinlola administration which included the Free Trade Zone project, the state\u2019s drug manufacturing company and the borrowing of N18.3bn loan. Also, the term of reference of the committee headed by Mr. Adelana Odutola, an engineer, involved determining whether due process was followed in the awards of the various contracts under investigation. The committee was also to determine the actual worth of the contracts and projects being funded from the N18.3bn loan in relation to the approved contract sum, among other terms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second chapter of the report submitted by the committee to the governor contained reports from sites of the Free Trade Zone, Ede zonal stadium, Iwo zonal stadium, Ife zonal stadium, Ilesa zonal stadium, Ikirun zonal stadium, Osogbo zonal stadium, drug manufacturing company, Osogbo, rural electrification sites, Osun State University, technical colleges, selected primary and secondary schools. According to the third chapter of the report, the Oyinlola government came up with the idea of developing an FTZ and an industrial park in 2007 with an allocation of N900m in the 2007 approved budget. The project had an allocation of N1bn in the 2008 approved budget. \u201cThe FTZ and Industrial Park were thus conceived to serve as a catalyst for the industrial and economic transformation of the state,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the course of investigation, the committee observed that only five per cent of the 1, 284.77-hectare FTZ land mass was developed as industrial park just as it noted that the Green House provided on the Industrial Park had not been put to use. Also, the committee frowned at the spending of N13, 450,800.00 for the provision of internet access for the FTZ, stressing that there was nothing on the ground to show for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Odutola-led committee said, \u201cBased on serious conviction, the immediate past administration in the state finally entered into an partnership with Industrial Development Group, a US-based company in March 2008, its Vice-President, Mr. Deji Afolabi, having been introduced to the potential in the state by Mrs. Toun Olaniyan, the then regional manager of Oceanic Bank, Osogbo. As part of efforts to develop the FTZ and IP, a company called Riverbanks Trade and Investment was formed to serve as a Special Purpose Vehicle whereby Osun government and IDG would work together to ensure the speedy implementation of the project.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee alleged that the Riverbanks Trade and Investment Limited only operated like a pseudo company because it \u201cneither had any visible or actual localised office for its operations nor an accountant nor functioning accounting records.\u201d It wondered why the immediate past State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Mrs. Ayomide Farounbi-Seriki, was not given executive responsibilities on the project when she was meant to protect the financial interest of government. \u201cThe Riverbanks Trade and Investment Limited only has an authorised capital of N1m which was considered grossly low for a company saddled with the authority to manage the multi billion naira development of the FTZ,\u201d the committee stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commenting on the issue, Farounbi-Seriki absolved herself from the complicity in the financial transactions of the FTZ, saying \u201cno project under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives benefitted from the N18.3bn loan. My ministry did not have supervisory or financial responsibility for the FTZ.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Faulting the composition of officials working on the FTZ project, the committee report on page 17 opined that, \u201cThe inclusion of Mr. Abiola Olaniyan, the self- acclaimed chairman, the sole first signatory was done principally because his wife, Mrs. Toun Olaniyan, was the then regional manager of Oceanic Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Abiola Olaniyan neither featured as a director in the Article of Memorandum of Riverbank Trade and Investment Limited nor was he appointed by the state government as its representative,\u201d the report stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The CRC explained that the funding of the FTZ was one-sided because all the funds invested in the project between March 2006 and November 26, 2010, were solely provided by the state government just as IDG, which was to contribute 85 per cent during the formation period, did not contribute anything while Osun contributed $1m.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report, IDG had insisted from the outset on the promotion of an industrial park because of the obvious absence of a nearby port and the prohibitive cost associated with developing an FTZ. But the committee insisted that the agreement signed between the state government and IDG was on the development of an FTZ and an industrial park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noting that the Nigerian Export Processing Zone Authority was not involved in the Osun FTZ project until 2009, the committee also wondered why N60m was paid by the Bureau of Public Procurement into the personal account of Mr. Deji Afolabi, for equipment required for the development of Oyinlola Farm Initiative \u201cwithout any government technocrat being involved in the procurement of the so-called equipment.\u201d \u201cTo have released a sum of N60m to a single individual\u2019s account without bothering about the exact prices of the equipment or even demanding accountability from the payee clearly showed negligence on the part of the Bureau of Public Procurement headed by Mr. Gbenga Abiola,\u201d the report asserted.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its recommendations, the CRC noted that the Osun FTZ and Industrial Park have the potential to develop the economy of the state, adding that the projects should be nurtured and sustained by the Aregbesola administration. The CRC said the N60m paid into the account of Mr. Deji Afolabi should be properly accounted for just as it said that the Bureau of Computer Service and Information Technology should be made to account for N13,450,800 received for the provision of internet access for the FTZ. It submitted that there was no evidence of satisfactory performance on the N26,158,402.86 contract handled by Messrs Panat Nigeria Limited for the clearing of chips and cassava plant.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is curious to note that the report was silent on some of its terms of reference, which included the amount of spent on UNIOSUN out of the N18.3bn loan drug manufacturing firm, rural electrification projects, selected primary and secondary schools, and the six stadia project. With this curious omission, the criticisms besetting the report by pro-Oyinlola adherents, who tagged the report as a hatchet job to vilify the Okuku-born former military administrator of Lagos State, is not misplaced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reacting, the Chief Press Secretary to Oyinlola, Mr. Lasisi Olagunju, on Tuesday, said, \u201cIf there are issues they want to raise, they should raise them with the Bureu of Public Procurement. Out of the N18.3bn loan, we accessed N10bn and paid back N2.4bn, The actual liability from the loan is N7.6bn and the ACN inherited N8.3bn as cash in bank.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Head of Bureau of Public Procurement, Gbenga Abiola, said, \u201cThe N60m and N13m were not from the loan. The loan had specific projects approved by the House. The money was spent on what it was approved.\u201d He said the N60m was for the development of the farm just as he said the N13m was for the computer services.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

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\nOsun and a legacy of unending controversy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TUNDE ODESOLA writes that controversies have continued to trail projects inherited by the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, from his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":445258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\nOsun and a legacy of unending controversy - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/22\/osun-and-a-legacy-of-unending-controversy\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Osun and a legacy of unending controversy - 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