The Osun State Government has formally petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the immediate past governor and current Minister of Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, over the alleged misappropriation of a $20m World Bank health grant.

The government also accused Oyetola of money laundering, financial misconduct and violations of the Public Procurement Act in the disbursement of the grant meant for health sector improvements in the state.

According to an acknowledged copy of the petition dated March 7, 2025, and obtained by our correspondent on Friday, Oyetola, during his tenure as governor, chaired a special Health Intervention Committee tasked with allocating and applying the grant funds.

The committee, whose members included former government officials such as Remi Omowaye, Dr. Rafiu Isamatu, and Bola Oyebamiji, decided to use the entire $20m for renovating 320 primary health care centres across the state.

According to the petition written by the government?s lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, ?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 government noted that the beneficiaries of the contract allegedly included businesses with no construction experience, such as food vendors, salon operators, supermarket owners, and web designers.

Among the companies named in the petition 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.

The state government alleges that the companies, lacking the expertise for construction, executed substandard renovation works while receiving full contract payments, thereby leading to the misappropriation of the $20n grant.

On the allegations of money laundering, the state government alleged that 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.

?In a similar vein, the government equally laid its hands on some financial records which clearly show a clear case of money laundering of huge magnitude by the past administration of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola.

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.

However, Adebayo dismissed the allegations, describing them as frivolous.

The former commissioner who requested for more details on the petition, said, ?EFCC has not invited me and I have not seen a copy of the petition for me to know what it is all about.

?If there is no proof, then the allegations are frivolous and of no stance.

?I have bec6ome a torn in the flesh of Gov adeleke and PDP and I won?t be surprised if some baseless allegations are levied against me.

?Anyway, they think trying to dirty my white garment will make me keep mute about their fraudulent ways of governance.?(Saturday PUNCH)

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