`![]()
Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)
The Humanity Centre: 610,
Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ijaye Bus stop, Ijaye-Ojokoro.
P.O. Box 1592, Agege, Lagos,
Nigeria. Tel: 01-4736534, 08141121208, 08037194969
Name, Nail, Shame and Shun Corrupt Leaders
Anywhere, Everywhere
7th
October, 2015
His Excellency
President
Muhammadu Buhari
President
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Federal
Republic of Nigeria,
Aso
Rock Villa,
Abuja
– Nigeria.
Your
Excellency,
KEMI ADEOSUN’S
MINISTERIAL NOMINATION; CACOL DISCOVERS ANOTHER MISFIT
Running
through the list of your nominees as ministers of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, as being forwarded to the National Assembly for screening and
confirmation, we and other concerned Nigerians, can not and must not pretend to
be comfortable with some names prominent among which is that of Mrs. Kemi
Adeosun, the former Finance Commissioner in Ogun State of Nigeria, hence this
petition.
Whilst
conceding to you, as constitutionally empowered, the power to appoint, even
without consulting with anyone, we in CACOL, consider it a patriotic
responsibility on our part to bring to your notice, facts and information at
our disposal that are considered useful and helpful to your administration; all
in the overall interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. This petition, we want to
make clear, is not aimed at pulling anybody down or settling scores other than
to ensure the right pegs are in the right holes; a sermon you have consistently,
since assuming office, been preaching.
Do
permit us to remind you that CACOL had, right from time, been in the vanguard
of advocating thoroughness and sincerity in the exercise of selecting those who
were to man top positions in your government as Nigerians are yearning for a
sharp departure from the ugly past whereby appointments were made strictly as a
means of settling loyalists of the ruling party while competence and integrity
were relegated to the background. You will also remember, your excellency, how
we have remained consistently vocal in demanding that some of your favoured
partymen who had previously served in high public offices but were having
allegations of one corrupt act or the other hanging on their neck, be
thoroughly investigated and cleared before being considered for higher
responsibilities in your government, or prosecuted if found culpable. The
former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola is one of such cases in
question. This is why we would be imploring you to see and treat this piece as just
one way of contributing our quota to the process of that positive change in our
life as a nation and to further strengthen the degree of impressive credibility
and confidence your young administration is presently enjoying from across the
country.
Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun, we dare say, is one individual that cannot add any value or gain
to your administration which you have consistently been promising would be
focused, proactive, selfless and above all, corrupt-free, given her antecedent
that has been found to be filled with so many scandalous activities premising
on financial mismanagement, questionable and self-beneficial transactions of
government businesses, wastefulness, acquisition of questionable wealth,
ineptness and of course, graft. Report even has it that Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has
been parading a dual citizenship (British/Nigerian); a status that
constitutionally disqualifies her from holding such office.
Your
Excellency, as you can see from the attached, our office has been inundated
with petitions from various quarters, apparently out of patriotic zeal and
inclination for a positive change in our national life and polity, as
consistently being canvassed by you and your party, the APC and certainly NOT
out of personal grudge or bitterness.
ALLEGATIONS LEVELED
AGAINST MRS. KEMI ADEOSUN
CACOL
is in possession of documents which chronicles allegations of financial
impropriety leveled against her by Organization of Financial Probity.
The
Group had in a statement issued last week accused the former commissioner of
dual citizenship, fraud, awarding contracts to her husband, manipulation of government
records, and living above her income.
Mrs
Kemi Adeosun, the Ogun State Finance Commissioner for four years during the
first term of Governor Ibikunle Amosun said that there was no truth in the
allegations and dared the group to provide evidence of their claims made in
their statement.
Organization
of Financial Probity had in a press release titled ‘Ten Things People Need to
Know About Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Former Commissioner for Finance, Ogun State
alleged that Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s four-year stint in Ogun State left behind a
trail of financial mismanagement, immeasurable ineptness and unspoken avarice.
Mrs Kemi Adeosun failed in her primary duty to guide Governor Ibikunle Amosun
in prudent financial management.
Among
the claims of the group include that;
1.
A British citizen, Adeosun returned
to Nigeria in the early 2000s, having worked at a local branch of a UK building
society, but determined to break into the Nigerian financial sector by any
means possible.
2.
One of the first positions she
obtained in Nigeria was in Bolaji Balogun’s ChapelHill Denham where she was
asked to resign, following anti-company activities which she executed in
conjunction with Niyi Adeosun, her husband – a heavy drinker who has made a
career of capitalising on dubious opportunities created by his wife. We would
like Kemi Adeosun to let the general public know about the role both she and
her husband played in the failed Ogun State Model Schools project which
resulted in a huge waste of public funds. Her husband’s company collected an
advance payment for building some of the schools yet the structures did not
materialise.
3.
Although their relationship has
since gone awry, it is widely known that it was Mr Wale Edun, former Lagos
commissioner for Finance (under Tinubu) who generously recommended Kemi Adeosun
to Governor Amosun. Due diligence was clearly not done or else it would have
been apparent to Ibikunle Amosun that he was appointing someone who is commonly
referred to as a ‘rogue’ in the Nigerian financial sector.
4.
On getting the job as Commissioner
for Finance in Ogun State, Kemi Adeosun constantly misled both the State
Executive Council and the governor by over-inflating the state’s IGR. This led
to the Ogun State government being further plunged into debt. It would be
instructive to learn just how much debt Ogun State has accrued in the last four
years under the watch of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his Finance Commissioner.
We challenge Mrs Kemi Adeosun to provide an analysis of the recurrent income
that supports her IGR claims. Does Kemi Adeosun not know that the huge debts
owed to hundreds of contractors should form part of the state’s current
liabilities? Ogun State’s finances are in a mess.
5.
During her tenure, Kemi Adeosun
routinely rejected good opportunities for investor funding of projects, in
preference for loans to the state so that she could benefit from kickbacks from
banks such as GTBank and First Bank. So devious is she that when given
preloaded bankcards, she would specifically demand that the money be handed to
her in cash.
6.
Kemi Adeosun misled the State
Executive Council in divesting from or underfunding potentially lucrative but
failing parastatals like Gateway Savings and Loans, Plantgate etc thereby
creating business opportunities for companies to which her husband is linked.
7.
Kemi Adeosun used her inside
knowledge of projects in other ministries to hijack initiatives that the
ministries were promoting. A case in point is the flagship programme, Home
Owners Charter, which ended up being driven by the Ministry of Finance instead
of the Ministry of Housing. Such projects provided the opportunity for
profiteering. Based on our research, Mrs Kemi Adeosun managed the statewide
supply of the bright green Home Owners Charter porter cabins at six times the
going rate.
8.
A particularly juicy project was the
implementation of the cashless policy. It affected almost all major ministries
yet was done without consultation or collaboration, leaving Kemi Adeosun as the
controller-in-chief of the ‘thank-you’ packages from the banks who paid her a
percentage on a recurrent basis.
9.
In the words of a member of staff at
the Ministry of Finance, “When Mrs Adeosun can not find a way of personally
benefitting from an initiative introduced by any of her colleagues, she is
known to kill it with lies, thereby abusing her access to the governor. She
would then repackage the same ideas in a way that would benefit her directly,
more often than not using the Ministry of Finance or her external surrogates.”
The details of such transactions will be made public in due course.
10.
It is important for Nigerians
everywhere to know that if Kemi Adeosun is appointed to any Federal MDAs, she
will without a doubt undermine President Buhari’s intentions by damaging such
an institution with her greed and inclination for corrupt practices. Without
resorting to bamboozling people with her cockney accent, we challenge Mrs Kemi
Adeosun, who is not an indigene of Ogun State to provide the general public
with references from the financial institutions she has worked for.
With
due respect, we recall you once described ministers as noise-makers which we
agree, most of them truly are, but be that as it may, the consequences of their
services on the overall success or otherwise of any administration, cannot be
over-emphasized.
It
is against this background, therefore, that we now urge your office to
diligently peruse and investigate every of the weighty allegations, as
contained in the attached documents, leveled against the nominee, with a view
to establishing its credibility and authenticity, and of course, its potential
implications on the esteem profile of your administration.
While
assuring your Excellency of our unalloyed loyalty to the democratic sovereignty
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and your administration’s seemingly unshaken
resolve to confront headlong corruption and clean up the polity of every sort
of sleaze and rot, we shall not tire out from lending our support in every
legitimate way possible, to ensure a resounding success in the quest.
Yours
faithfully,
Debo Adeniran
Executive
Chairman, CACOL
08037194969
No comments:
Post a Comment