Oyo Govt. dares Ladoja on corruption fight The Oyo State Government has dared former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, to be bold enough in accusing it of any wrongdoing, rather than using his aides as fronts to masquerade as anti-corruptiongroups. The state government, in a statement issued in Ibadan by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. `Wale Sadeeq, accused Ladoja of using fronts because he knew that societal outcry over his pending case of allegedly fraudulently converting N6 billion of Oyo State money into personal use, which is ongoing in the court, would diminish the weight of his arguments. Government’s reaction came against the backdrop of an allegation of fraud against it by the former governor through his aide, Lanre Ogundipe, under the aegis of an anti-corruptiongroup. The state government said that Ladoja, who is currently standing trial over alleged N6 billion fraud, should clear himself of all the allegations of corruption before he could have the moral right of accusing anyone of corruption. It also accused the former governor of feeding the people of the state with outright lies, especially on the activities of the Oyo State Transporters’ Enumeration and Registration Scheme (OYSTERS). ``The truth of the matter is that OYSTERS is a public-private sector (PPP) arrangement and it is not focused entirely on internally-generated revenue but on transforming the entire commercial transport sector of the state. ``Besides, it is structured to be financially self-sustainingand the government has not spent a dime in the take-off, operations and sustenance of the project. Yet, the scheme has employed no fewer than 140 graduates which is expected to increase to 250 in no distant time,’’ the state government said. It also explained that, contrary to the allegation of Ladoja’s adies, no account was opened in UBA for the scheme nor in Skye Bank, in any individual’s name, adding that all the accounts opened in some banks in the name of the Lead Consultant, were non-chequeing accounts and were under the absolute control of the state government. It said that the idea behind OYSTERS, which it said was the federal government’s mindset of transportation,was to implement a gradual transition from Okada riding to tricycle operations, stressing that no fewer than 32,000 okada operators and owners had so far been registered and enrolled in the scheme. The government said that it was one of the most prudent governments in the history of governance in the state, maintaining that Ladoja, aware that his name had been soiled in the estimation of the world, wanted to even the score by dragging the state government along his path, stating that it was too focused to be involved in such unholy incident.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:15:44 +0000
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