Recently, some lawmakers from Ondo State were in the United States for a Leadership Training. During their visit, Adeniyi Akindele Michael who represents Akure North Constituency in the Assembly spoke on the recent allegation of financial misappropriation made against the leadership of the House of Assembly and declared that they are not afraid of probe by anti corruption agencies. ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI reports.
You are in the United States for Leadership Trainings. How do you think this will help our democratic system in Nigeria?
Yes, this will help a lot. We have been to several States in the United States of America. We have better understanding of how they run their government in the Western world. This is part of the upbringing that our Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has. He has travelled far and wide and he is using such experience from the Western world to develop Ondo State.
Recently, an Akure-based lawyer, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele accused the leadership of the Ondo State House of Assembly of Financial misappropriation. What is your reaction as the Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation?
As per corruption, I will say there is nothing like that in the Ondo State House of Assembly. I have read the story too in the newspaper regarding what Mr. Ogele said about the leadership of the House and this has been refuted severally, nothing of such happened in the State Assembly. As regards Mr. Ogele’s allegation, I will say that the man is an idle person. I want to say it specifically that the man is biased. What can he say that the administration of the Action Congress of Nigeria in his state, Ekiti has been able to achieve since its inception and yet he has not openly castigated the government. Why is he now talking evil about the Labour Party government that is really doing a lot to effect positive changes in Ondo State. He should go to his state and ask the government there to perform instead of allowing himself to be used by the opposition in Ondo State to cause trouble because of the coming elections.
I want to say that the total money allocated to the Assembly in last year’s budget was 900Million naira. You know what? Mr. Ogele did not investigate his claim properly but just went to the budget of last year and lifted 900Million Naira out. I want to state that the whole money given to us for capital projects last year was just a little above 200Million Naira. That was the only thing that the State government released to us and after the tax was deducted, we only had about 168Million Naira. As I am talking to you, all those projects like Crèche, the Canteen and others are on-going. We are so prudent and we took our time to do everything we do.
Barrister Ogele has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission {EFCC} to arrest and probe the Speaker of the House of Assembly for not being transparent in his dealings, what is your reaction to this?
I want to make it clear that the present leadership of the House is so transparent, prudent and since we have been in the operation, there has never been anything like financial misappropriation. I am in my second term in the House and I had earlier worked with one Speaker before, and now with the present one and there is a clear difference between the two of them. When you talk about management of resources of the House, it is always a joint decision. It is not the decision of Mr. Speaker but the fact is that somebody has to be at the top representing us, appending his signature on whatever we want to do because all of us can not be at the top at the same time. As a matter of fact, we are waiting for the EFCC to invite us. We are very ready for the anti-corruption agencies like EFCC, ICPC and others because we are sure that we did not misappropriate any funds as alleged by Mr. Ogele. We have all the projects and their records on ground and Ogele will be disappointed. Imagine Ogele saying it around that we spent 20Million Naira on fumigation whereas only 2.5Million Naira was release to us for that purpose. I am sure that the EFCC operatives will come and investigate all the records available and they will see that we are prudent. During this year budgetary session, Human Rights lawyer who is even a member of the opposition party, Dr. Tunji Abayomi came and he applauded us. He was happy when he saw the way things were handled. The leadership of the House never inflated any contract and we are ready to subject ourselves to any probe. This allegation is an attempt to discredit the present administration in the state so I advise Mr. Ogele to always verify issues before making allegations.
The PDP State Chairman, Honourable Alabi Ebenezer once said that nothing has been done to develop Akure North Local Government which happens to be the Constituency that you represent in the House of Assembly. What can you said about this?
Do not mind that man. A lot has been done by the State government to improve the area. You must know that there is nothing you do that will be good in the eyes of the opposition. The present State Chairman of the PDP, Honourable Alabi Ebenezer was there as a Chairman of the Local Government for over a year, he had also been there as a Leader of the House in the Local Government for three years while I was the Vice-Chairman then, he was also a Supervisor for Works for almost two years. During all these periods, let him come out and point at any single habitable market that he or the then PDP-led government was able to construct. He is my younger brother and I can not join issues with him. Whenever you are in Nigeria, try to go to his home town, Itaogbolu, you will see several structures that this present government has put in place. Is that not an achievement? Look the new market building there, they were crying that it was the duty of the Local government to do, but when he was Chairman, was he able to do it? They continue to say now that the Governor has hijacked the responsibilities of the Local Government. Now, the Labour Party-led government has completed habitable markets in Iju, Itaogbolu and Oba-Ile. All these are in the same local government and we also a have a bigger market under construction at Ogbese.
The opposition parties in Ondo state {ACN and PDP} have seriously been preparing to take over power from the present administration through the coming governorship election in the State. What are the chances of your party?
Honestly, I will like to say that the opposition parties are just making noise. How can they even think that they can take over power from a party that has met all the needs of the electorates. You see, the electorates are not stupid and they know the right thing. Let the PDP leaders come out and tell the public what they were able to do when they ruled the State for over six years. They did not achieve anything. Also, let the ACN come out and tell us what the party was able to achieve in the States that they control in the federation. What did they achieve in Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Edo States? Nothing, because they are still paying some dues to their Master, Bola. I want to state that this is why they do not like Mimiko, because he refused to use the funds meant for the developmental project to pay dues to some so-called leaders of the South-West. Tinubu might be a leader in the Action Congress of Nigeria but he certainly is not a leader in Ondo State and the election will tell. We will floor him and his party during the election. Let elections come anytime any day, Labour Party will defeat the opposition parties in Ondo state.
What positive changes has the Labour Party-led government been able to effect since inception?
A lot. The government of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has done a lot. We have achieved lots of developmental and infrastructural projects in the State. The government has touched each and every local government in the State in the area of development without being biased. Scholarships are being paid to students, we have quality educational system, good health care, the mother and child health care system, electrification and beautification projects across the State, security systems and so on. We have achieved a lot and this is one of the reasons why the Governor was recently given the Tribune award in Abuja where he was described as Omoluwabi by the wife of the late Awolowo, Chief Mrs HID Awolowo.
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