By Kolawole Olayinka, Abeokuta
An Ogun State Youth Group, Ogun State Youth Frontier, has accused the Chairman of the Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Public Account and Anti-Corruption, Lamidi Musefiu, of pursuing personal agenda aimed at vendetta by re-inviting the former Director General, Bureau of Lands, during the immediate past administration, Biyi Ismail.
The Group, in a press statement signed by its Director, Akintomide Moronfolu, a copy of which was made available to newsmen, further accused the Committee head of disgracing the Ogun State House of Assembly.
The lawmaker had issued a public invitation at the Assembly Complex, last week, to the former Special Adviser, accusing him of refusing to honour previous invitation on the guise of COVID-19 outbreak.
The former DG was requested to furnish the committee with relevant documents relating to all costlines including those containing the construction of an ICT infrastructure to the tune of N400m.
The committee which also requested for the list of all allocations at Flowergate between 2015 and 2019, also observed drop in the revenue of the Bureau from over N10b to about N3b.
Responding in the press release, the group wondered why the Committee Chair, who was also a Special Adviser to the former Governor Ibikunle Amosun lacks in-depth knowledge on the matters raised.
The group also wondered why invitation was sent to the former DG for issues which affected the Bureau when he was not even at the helms of affairs.
It also accused the lawmaker of lying against the former DG over an initial invitation, saying Ismail actually honoured the invitation but the meeting was inconclusive because of the negligence of the Committee and inability to send proper invite to the officers saddled with the issues raised.
On the Flowergate land allocation between 2015 and 2019, the group also wondered why such request was not directed to the Director of Land Administration who keeps such records.
“Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts and Anti-corruption headed by Hon. Lamidi Musefiu has wrongfully, intentionally and without cogent facts falsely accused a former Special Adviser/DG to the Ogun State governor in the last administration, Mr. Biyi Ismail of financial infractions from 2015 to 2019.
“As a fact also, Hon Lamidi Musefiu was a Special Adviser during the same administration and it is our expectation that he Lamidi has indept knowledge of the administration he served under.
“It is shocking that the false accusations against Mr Biyi Ismail who was a special adviser/DG to the then Ogun State governor between 24th February 2016 and 31st December 2018 (2years, 10months), which allegedly spans over a period he was not even the SA/DG lands.
“If the purported investigation is genuine and not a means to settle personal scores, why were invites not sent to the three other persons who were Special Advisers/DGs over the said period of 2015 to 2019.
“The selective investigation and invite to just Mr. Biyi Ismail points to the fact that Mr. Lamidi is merely using the instrumentality of his position as Chairman Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Public accounts and anti-corruption to attempt to dent the good image of the former Special Adviser.
“There is also no justifiable fact in the publication by the chairman that the former special adviser refused to honour the first invite on the excuse that he was abroad during the COVID 19 pandemic.
“The former SA/DG actually honored the first invite that was sent to him and attended the meeting which was inconclusive due the committee’s negligence and inability to send out the proper invite to the key government officers saddled with the responsibility of keeping records at the Lands bureau.
“The Committee Chairman’s demand for list of land allocation at Flowergate between 2015 and 2019 as well as those in other government layouts from the former DG land is another shocker, should such demands not be directed to the director of land management whose office keep such records?”
On the probe on the ICT infrastructure, the group also clarified that the infrastructure was never approved, supervised or executed by the former DG, tagging the request as absurd.
“We found out that Lamidi’s claims on ICT Infrastructure he mentioned running into over N400m is vague and absurd as this was not approved, supervised or executed by him which is just another tactics to drag Mr. Ismail’s name to the mud.”
On the dropped Internally Generated Revenue, the group said the allegation of the Committee Chair was disappointing, revealing that contrary to the allegation, the IGR was raised from less than N3b to over N6b in 2016, then to over N8b in 2017 and over N10b in 2018.
“Mr. Ismail raised the bureau’s IGR from less that 3bn to over 6bn in 2016, then over 8bn in 2017 and over 10bn in 2018. Lamidi requesting clarification from Mr. Ismail on why the Bureau’s revenue dropped by 70 percent from N10.6bn to N3.1bn during a period he had left office is disappointing.
“How would Mr. Ismail be expected to answer to the underperformance that happened, especially for a period he has left the office?
“The committee chairman should put his thoughts together and stop engaging in time wasting ventures which continues to disgrace the Ogun State House of Assembly.
“We have reasons to believe that Mr. Lamidi’s actions may be based on past scores which he has to settle with the former SA/DG lands and it is disappointing that the scarce resources and machineries of our State are being deployed towards such personal vendetta.”
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