The Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission ( OSOPADEC), Biyi Poroye and the commission’s Secretary, Abike Bayo-Ilawole on Wednesday appeared before the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) over alleged financial misconduct.
Thefrontrank reports that Engineer Olukorede Adeshina-Oladapo, Director of Project Planning and Development at the OSOPADEC also appeared before the CCB.
The CCB in Akure had invited some officials of OSOPADEC over alleged N463 million fraud.
The Chairman of the commission, Biyi Poroye declined speaking to journalists after appearing before the Bureau.
However, Bayo-Ilawole, who appeared before the CCB said that the N463 million was not missing as alleged but for projects execution.
“The allegation has been misappropriation of fund. I think, maybe N463 million, and to me, I just felt the record will speak for itself, and that has been my response.
”I told them nothing of such happened, and the record will speak for itself. Like the one they quoted that it was sent to my father’s account, it was a long-term project.
“The man was a contractor then and was never up to that term, but the record will speak for itself like I said.
”Then the two officers’ names there were captured. One or two things that I know about it was that they supervised other colleagues.
”It could be their allowances, it could be allowance of officers or what they needed to spend on the project. So they should allow me to go through the record and we will separate this and we will know what actually transpired.
“But one of the major things that is obvious is that this fund was not at a go, it was for the period of time,” she said.
Also speaking, Adeshina-Oladapo said that there was an approval from the state governor to carry out the direct labour projects.
Adeshina-Oladapo explained that the money was sent to his personal bank account to carry out 21 school renovations and other projects in the mandate area of Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.
”The transactions were done by direct labour, and during the course of renovating, since it’s direct labour and we are going to control the spending, they were sending the money, some of the money came to my account.
“It is just to disburse for labour, to procure materials. The money didn’t come in bulk, it was coming in bits and pieces. Sometimes N2 million, sometimes N5 million, sometimes N6 million at different times,” he stated.
According to him, it is a practice in the commission to pay money into personal bank account for direct labour projects.
”It is not something that is new in the system when you want to do direct labour job because the area that we work is a very difficult area.
In a chat with newsmen, the Chief Superintendent of CCB, Mrs R. O. Akingbemila, said that it is a breach of code of conduct to pay money from the commission to personal bank accounts of individuals, hence the invitation.
“It’s a case of fraud, involving the flow of about N463 million into their personal accounts, which is a breach of the code of conduct.
“You don’t send money to a private account from the Commission’s account. That is the purpose of inviting them. And they have explained their own part, but it’s a follow-up something.
“We have told them to bring some documents, including their bank statements and some other documents that will back it up. So we’re expecting them on Monday by 12 ,” she said.
