Ogun Assembly Probes Alleged Sale of Council’s Property by Ex- Chairman
James Sowole in Abeokuta
The Ogun State House of Assembly yesterday began probe into allegation of illegal sales of land belonging to Ewekoro Local Government of the state, by the immediate past administration of the Council’s Chairman, Hon. Sikiru Adesina.
The probe was sequel to a petition forwarded to the Assembly by a group , under the aegis of ‘Concerned Citizens’ in the local government.
The petitioners accused Adesina of engaging in unlawful sales of government land, and as well failed accountability among others, in the local government, when he was the council’s boss.
At the sitting of the Assembly’s Committee on Public Accounts and Anti-corruption, held at the Assembly’s complex in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the Committee led by Hon. Bello Oluwadamilare, grilled Head of the Local Government Area (HOLGA), Mrs. Kemi Ogunyewo for closed to two hours on the petition.
The council was alleged to have engaged in shady deals and failing to follow due process in sales and lease of the unspecified number of land at the local government.
But in her response, Ogunyewo, who led four other career officers to the committee’s sitting, denied outright sales of the land, maintaining that the affected land were leased to companies and private individuals for a period of 99 years who signed to the payment of a paltry sum of N10,000 per annum on each acre for a period of 99 years.
Despite her defence, the Committee has directed Ogunyewo and other officials to provide the Assembly with details of the list of the entire land that belongs to the local government, either sold, leased and those still owned by the local government, with all necessary documents, list of projects executed by the local government between 2021 and 2024 and cost for each of the projects.
The committee also demanded that the Council’s Engineer should forward to it, details of the inspection reports on the land leased so far.
It demanded that the Council’s Treasurer should provide it with copies of correspondences to banks over their several inactive bank accounts.
While adjourning till next week Tuesday, the committee directed the immediate past chairman of the council, to appear before it and answer some questions regarding the petition.
