Osun Govt Accuses Oyetola Of Misusing Public Funds Including $20m World Bank Grant…Petitions EFCC

Osun State Government has launched probe into the utilization of a $20m World Bank health grant during the Mr Gboyega Oyetola administration alleging flagrant misuse of the funds in question.

Mr Gboyega Oyetola, who is the Minister of Blue Economy, served as governor of Osun State between 2018 and 2022.

The state government has also accused Oyetola of getting involved in money laundering, financial misconduct and violations of the Public Procurement Act with respect to the disbursement of the $20m World Bank health grant.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that the state government had since petitioned the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asking the anti-graft agency to take necessary action.

In the petition dated March 7, 2025, it was claimed that  Oyetola during his tenure as governor, chaired a special Health Intervention Committee tasked with allocating and utilizing the funds.

The committee,  the state government added, had Hon Remi Omowaiye, Dr. Rafiu Isamatu, and Bola Oyebamiji as members  and the $20 million was used  for renovation of 320 primary health care centres across the state.

 ‘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 state government noted in the petition that was filed by its lawyer, Barrister Pelumi Olajengbesi,

The state government added that the beneficiaries of the contracts included businesses with no construction experience, such as food vendors, salon operators, supermarket owners, and web designers.

In the petition in question, the state government  listed beneficiary companies to include Afamoks Web International, linked to former Amotekun Field Commander, Comrade  Amitolu Shittu, Poshpreneurs Nig., owned by the children of the former Head of Service, Olowogboyega Oyebade; The Ice Firms Nig. Ltd, allegedly owned by Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Adebayo Adeleke, and Dotfam Multiventures Ltd, linked to the siblings of the former State APC Chairman.

The state government also alleged that the companies did shoddy work because they lack the expertise for construction while they however received full payments for the contracts.

On the allegations of money laundering, the state government alleged that over ₦1.5 billion, was siphoned off from the state’s bank accounts into other bank accounts 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 showed a clear case of money laundering of huge magnitude by the Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola administration .

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  bank 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 N30 million to over N10 million per day were made in cash, with no records of the funds being used for any official projects.

Former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Bayo Adeleke has however described the allegations as frivolous.

The former commissioner who asked for full information about 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 become a torn in the flesh of Gov Adeleke and PDP and I won’t be surprised if some baseless allegations are leveled against me.

Anyway, they think trying to dirty my white garment will make me keep mute about their fraudulent ways of governance’-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you