Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has set up an eight-man panel that would implement the report and the white paper of the committee that reviewed contracts awarded by the administration of the immediate past governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola.
Adeleke took over from Oyetola on November 27, 2022, and since then, the two men have endured a frosty relationship.
Shortly after taking over the reign of government, Adeleke set up the contract review committee through an executive order.
According to a statement by the spokesperson for the governor, Olawale Rasheed, obtained in Osogbo on Thursday, the new panel was charged with enforcing the recommendations of that original review committee and the subsequent white paper approved by the State Executive Council.
The statement read, “Terms of reference of the panel include enforcing the recommendations in the committee report and white paper, ensuring prosecution of culprits through relevant agencies and implementing all institutional recommendations to prevent reoccurrence of distortions in contract award and management.
“The committee is expected to commence operations immediately by giving effect to each of the committee recommendations as approved by the State Executive Council.”
The state chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement, described the setting up of the implementation committee as a ploy to cover up mismanagement by the present administration uncovered by the opposition party.
Lawal said it was “funny that an administration that awarded road/flyover contract to the serving deputy speaker of the state House of Assembly without following the due process would now suddenly consider the setting up of an implementation panel of the White Paper on the Contract Review Committee?
“We wondered that why was it a day after our party accused Governor Adeleke of awarding state road/flyover contracts to his brother and nephew that he(Adeleke) suddenly considered it expedient to set up an implementation committee?
“Adeleke should thread softly as Osun people are now wiser and knowledgeable enough to read the true motive of his action meant to unjustifiably victimise the opposition for having the effrontery to catalogue the series of frauds his government is perpetrating against the state in the name of prosecution of legacy projects.”