Minister of Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola has been accused of misappropriating $20m World Bank health grant and N1.5bn.
The accusation was thrown at the Minister by the Osun State Government.
The latter in a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, sought the investigation of Oyetola for the alleged crime.
The petition penned by the state government’s lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, reads that during the minister’s time as the state governor he chaired a special Health Intervention Committee formed for allocating and applying the grant funds.
However, according to the allegation, the committee under the minister’s leadership dissipated the entire $20m on renovating 320 primary health care centres across the state, alleging that the contract awards for the projects were done in violation of public procurement laws.
“This so-called renovation of primary health care centres involved building, renovation and adjustments/restructuring of some of these centres in order to attain the position of modern health centres. Having made these decisions, the Oyetola-led committee decided to award the contracts for the renovation.
“In flagrant violations of the above clear provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, Oyetola did not call for bidding as mandatorily required under the PPA, let alone allowing competition which would have afforded the state the best qualified contractors to handle the projects.
“Rather, the former governor in observing the provisions of the Act in breach, awarded the contracts to individuals who were either his cabinet members, head of one agency of government or the other, his proxies and cronies who claimed to have incorporated business names/inactive companies,” the state government claimed.
The government alleged that among beneficiaries of the contract awards are businesses with no construction experience, such as food vendors, salon operators, supermarket owners, and web designers.
Listed among the unqualified beneficiaries are: Poshpreneurs Nig., owned by the children of the former Head of Service, Olowogboyega Oyebade; Dotfam Multiventures Ltd, linked to the siblings of the former APC State Chairman; The Ice Firms Nig. Ltd, allegedly owned by Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Adebayo Adeleke; and Afamoks Web International, linked to former Amotekun Field Commander, Amitolu Shittu.
It further accused Oyetola of money laundering, saying on his watch over ₦1.5 bn, was funneled through the Osun chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria between January and October 2022.
The petition named former ALGON Chairman, Abiodun Idowu, Secretary, Olubisi Oladosu; 28 former local government caretaker chairmen; and the former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Yekeen Adebayo Adeleke, as key actors in the alleged scheme.
Financial records cited in the petition indicate that funds “were repeatedly transferred from the ALGON account at Zenith Bank (Account Number: 1016607858) into the private account of one Akeem Ibitoye, a local government employee and Director of Finance at Ejigbo Local Government.”
The state government alleged that withdrawals ranging from N30m to over N10m per day were made in cash, with no records of the funds being used for any official projects.
