THERE
were indications in Osogbo on Sunday that Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, who
recently accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of graft, had been invited to the
Abuja headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A
source close to the judge told journalists in Osogbo, the Osun State capital,
on Sunday that the judge was contacted by an official of the EFCC, who asked
her to come to the Abuja office of the commission to assist them in the
investigation into the allegations.
Oloyede,
a serving judge in the Osun State judiciary had recently petitioned the state
House of Assembly, asking that impeachment proceedings be commenced against
Aregbesola, who she also accused of being corrupt.
The
source said the judge had expressed her readiness to assist the anti-graft
agency if they come to Osogbo to investigate the petition but that she could
not afford to travel to Abuja at the moment.
The
judge had in her petition written on June 19 to the Speaker of the Osun State
House of Assembly, Mr. Najeem Salam, accused Aregbesola of financial
recklessness.
She
had also sent a copy of the petition to the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, among others.
The
governor had told the House of Assembly during the inauguration of the
lawmakers in June that his administration had received N204bn from federal
allocations and internally generated revenue since inception till the end of
2014.
But
the judge said the state got N538bn and alleged that the governor falsified the
figure in order to hide the balance of the receipts.
Her
petition read in part, “Mr. Governor is deemed to have received on behalf of
the state and local governments, revenues well in excess of N538bn within the
period under reference, therefore, the figures being currently touted by Mr.
Governor are cooked, manipulated, fallacious and fraudulent. They are
undeniable evidence of corruption!
“But
in spite of all those huge earnings, and for no justifiable reasons, at least
not justifiable before rationally thinking minds, coupled with the accumulation
of foreign and local debts, Mr. Governor could still not provide the much
touted infrastructures and to make matters worse, he couldn’t even discharge
the simplest and least complicated of functions in governance, which is to
maintain the civil service, pay pensions, run public schools and hospitals, and
the maintenance of existing ‘Trunk B’ Roads.”
The
state House of assembly had set up a panel to investigate the judge’s petition
but she had disagreed with the panel.
The
judge, who did not show up in person before the panel, had sent her counsel,
Mr. Lanre Ogunlesi (SAN) to represent her and she complained that the panel
ought to make a copy of Aregbesola’s reply to her petition available to her for
further action.
But
the panel headed by Mr. Adegboye Akintunde, who is also the deputy speaker of
the House, disagreed with the judge’s request, saying the panel was not
obligated to make the response of the defendant available to the petitioner.
The
two week given the panel to investigate the petition had expired last Friday.
Efforts
by The PUNCH to reach the Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Mr. Wilson
Uwujaren, to comment on the development on Sunday was not successful as
repeated calls to his mobile telephone line indicated that it was either
switched off or in an area outside network coverage.
Source:punchng
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