US-based Nigerian philanthropist and businessman, Chief Dr Aloysius Agada, has sent an SOS to Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State from his hospital bed, making a passionate appeal to him to prevail on the Osun State University Teaching Hospital (UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital) to pay his company for medical equipment supplied some nine years ago.

Agada, Chairman of Star Global Marketing Limited, sounded weak when he spoke with News Express on phone on Thursday, June 30, 2022. He lamented that all efforts made so far by his company to get UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital to pay the debt, which he said was negotiated down from N69,452,612.50 to N55 million over two months ago, have so far proved abortive.

“I need this money most urgently to enable me take care of myself. I appeal to His Excellency, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, to use his good offices to ensure that my company gets paid urgently. It is painful watching myself dying slowly here in America while our money is with the Osun Osun State University Teaching Hospital, which has refused to pay for about nine years now,” Agada, Chairman of the Open Hands Amazing Charitable Organisation Incorporated, an NGO known for undertaking free medical outreach programmes across Nigeria, said.

He lamented that apart from the heavy toll on his health, indebtedness by Osun State has almost crippled the operations of Star Global Marketing Limited, noting that there is another outstanding sum of N148,260,000 owed the company by the Osun State Ministry of Health for the supply of medical supplies/equipment.

Adding her voice, his wife, Chief Dr Magdalene Agada, begged Governor Oyetola to urgently intervene and compel UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital to pay Star Global Marketing Limited without further delay. “I am begging His Excellency, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, in the name of Almighty God, to come to our rescue as I don’t want to lose my husband due to lack of money to take care of his treatment. The actual contract sum is N69,452,612.50 but, despite our heavy losses due to the weak exchange rate of the Naira, we agreed to write off the sum of over N14 million during negotiations in April to facilitate payment but we have not been paid despite that,” she lamented.

She disclosed that all efforts to get the UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital Chief Medical Director, Dr Peter Olaitan, and the Hospital’s Board chaired by former Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, to pay the money have failed “hence we are appealing for the urgent intervention of His Excellency, Governor Oyetola, to come tour rescue.”

News Express learnt that Star Global Marketing Ltd. supplied UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital (formerly Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital) C-Arm machine and various medical equipment worth a total sum of N69,452,612.50 in 2013. The money has not been paid despite several demands, requests and pleas, forcing the company to go to court. The case, Suit No LD/ADR/3607/2021, is pending before Honourable Justice Pedro of Lagos High Court, sitting at Osborne Ikoyi.

As part of efforts to settle the matter out of court, the company was invited by the Osun State Attorney General, Hon Femi Akande, to come for mediation on April 21, 2022. Consequently, the company’s lawyer, Mr. Chidi Ike of Chidi Ike & Associates Lagos, travelled to Oshogbo for the said meeting, at which it was agreed that the money should be reviewed downwards to N55m only (N14m less than the contract sum) so as to enable immediate payment of the money.

While waiting for the payment, the health of Chief Dr Aloysius Agada, who has been battling a heart ailment for years, suddenly deteriorated, leading to hospitalisation.