The suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state, Mr Wale Adedayo who was released on Monday after spending three days in the custody of the Department of State Security Services has said that he remained unshaken in his demand that Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, should allow the local governments in the state have access to federal allocations meant to develop the grassroots.
He also stressed that he has no regrets about the actions he has so far taken despite his arrest and detention for three days.
Speaking with PUNCH in Abeokuta shortly after his release, Adedayo said that he was detained because of a petition sent by Governor Abiodun to the security agency wherein he was alleged to have been making inciting comments that could jeopardise public peace.
The LG boss who was last Thursday suspended by seven councillors in his local government for three months over allegations of maladministration and financial mismanagement however, said that he had told the DSS that there was never a time he made any inciting comments other than the letter written to the former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba where he alleged that Abiodun has not funded the local governments in the state for two years.
He said he equally told the DSS that he would never write a retraction of his statement that there has been zero allocation to the local governments in the state.
He, however, apologised to the governor if he felt that the statement had embarrassed him saying that he only wanted the best for the people at the grassroots.
He disclosed further that other LG chairmen in the state contributed to the letter written to Osoba on the zero allocation to the local governments, adding that he only edited it and appended his name.
He said that he was surprised that his colleagues could back down from the struggle.
The DSS, Adedayo said, “Claimed there is a letter from the governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, that I was making inciting comments against the state government but I told them that there was nothing like that or who did they say I have incited? They said that I was planning a protest but I said I don’t know anything about that and I told them that I had only done what my conscience said that I should and this I did with my other colleagues and chairmen even though they all ran back. My conscience is very clear in the letter I wrote to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the former governor of the state and a national leader of our party, APC.
“Some of the chairmen had input into the letter, I only did the editing of the letter, put my name there, and then sent it and what is written in the letter affects all the council chairmen, so it is not about getting their backing or not. So what the governor wanted me to do was to do a retraction of what the letter contained but I said that I won’t do that. The DSS later said the governor said that I have embarrassed him and I said if the governor felt that I have embarrassed him, I am sorry but the truth is that the facts are there for “I am not fighting with Governor Abiodun, he is my friend, he’s my egbon, my senior brother but my take is if the local governments are doing well, it’s all to the credit of Mr Governor.
He is the one people will be talking about and I gave them the example of the government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel between 2003 to 2011. If you go to the 236 wards in the state you will see the footprints of this government at the grassroots, the people will be saying Daniel did this, he did that but it was the local government chairmen that did all of these projects yet people till today will be shouting the name of Gbenga Daniel. All of these were made possible because the governor allowed the local governments to have access to their federal allocations.
“So, I said the same thing will be happening if Governor Abiodun allows the local governments to have access to their funds. And then they came up with the issue of being sponsored, I am 57 and I know what is good for the people, no one is sponsoring me and they said that I should apologise and do a retraction but I said no. I said if the governor said that he was embarrassed I am sorry but I equally added that if the governor had funded the local governments all would have been to his credit, I wrote all of this for the DSS.”
When told that the Joint Account Allocation Committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the council fund in the state has said that no dime of the local governments was missing, Adedayo said, “Let them tell that to the EFCC, I have sent my letters to them. Who is even JAAC? This concerns the local government chairmen and if each of them claimed that they have been collecting the money meant to develop their council areas they should be ready to give account to the people.”
The suspended council boss also said that he would soon challenge what he called his illegal suspension in court saying that all the allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers were tissues of lies and mere fabrication.
The Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Hon Tunde Oladunjoye when contacted for his reaction said he had nothing to say because the party was yet to meet or discuss. He said, “I don’t have a comment on this. The party is yet to meet or discuss.”
Speaking on the raging controversies on Friday, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tokunbo Talabi insisted that it was so obvious that the state government had not tampered with the local government funds but had rather had to augment the monthly allocation so that the council areas could meet up with their financial obligations.
