From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Ogun State House of Assembly has begun a probe into the allegation of illegal sales of land in Ewekoro Local Government Area by the immediate past administration of the council’s chairman, Sikiru Adesina.
This move followed a petition forwarded to the Assembly by a group, Concerned Citizens, in the local government, which accused the immediate past chairman of engaging in unlawful sales of government land, and as well failed accountability among others.
At the sitting of the Assembly’s Committee on Public Accounts and Anti-corruption held at the Assembly Complex in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the Committee led by Bello Oluwadamilare, grilled the Head of the Local Government Area (HOLGA), Mrs. Kemi Ogunyewo, for almost two hours on the petition.
According to the lawmaker, the immediate past administration in the council was alleged to be involved in shady deals and failure to follow due process in sales and lease of the unspecified number of land belonging to Ewekoro LG.
But in her response, Ogunyewo, who led four other career officers to the Committee’s sitting, denied outright sales of the land, maintaining that the affected land were leased to companies and private individuals for a period of 99 years who signed to the payment of a paltry sum of N10,000 per annum on each acre for a period of 99 years.
The Committee, , however, directed the HOLGA and other officials to provide the Assembly with details of the list of the entire land that belongs to the local government, either sold, leased and those still owned by the local government, with all necessary documents, list of projects executed by the local government between 2021 and 2024 and cost for each of the projects.
The committee also directed the Head of the Works Department of the council to forward to it details of the inspection reports on the land leased so far.
It further demanded that the treasurer of the local government should provide the Committee with copies of correspondences to banks over their several inactive bank accounts.
While adjourning sitting until next Tuesday, the Committee directed the immediate past chairman of the council to appear before it and answer some questions regarding the petition.