Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the weekend exchanged words following the suspension of the Executive Secretary of the Osun Health Insurance Agency (OSHIA), Dr Niyi Oginni, and the Head of the Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr Adebukola Olujide, by Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The suspension of the two officers was contained in a statement issues in Osogbo, the state capital, by the spokesperson to the governor, Olawale Rasheed.
According to the statement, the committee set up to probe them had in its recommendation unearthed the “unethical practices of the suspended heads of the OSHIA and the Primary Health Care Board as manifested in contract awards without due process, non-remittance of the actual tender fee collected from contractors, contracts without value for money like the PHCs, and deliberate splitting of contracts.”
“The committee further found out that the suspended OSHIA boss gave contracts to the tune of several millions of naira to his biological daughter and his private hospital in the agency he is heading, while the acting career head in the Primary Health Care (Board) lied on oath when she falsely denied knowledge of all contracts of infrastructure and supplies in the PHCs, resorting to bulk-passing and blame trading,” it said.
Shortly after he was sworn-in, Adeleke reversed all appointments made into the civil service since his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola, lost his re-election. He also suspended the chairman and members of Osun State Independent Electoral Commission.
Before the latest suspension, based on the recommendation of the state assets recovery committee, the governor had suspended the project coordinator and consultant of the Ilesa Water Project.
Reacting to the suspension of Oyetola’s appointees, the APC, in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Kola Olabisi, accused Adeleke of abdicating his office and leaving governance in the hands of some committees.
“The people of the state are fed up. Where is the governor? When was the last time you heard from the governor himself? He is just running the government by proxy. With the way things are going, he may, one day, sack himself as governor,” Olabisi said.
But the acting Chairman of the PDP in the state, Dr Adekunle Akindele, described APC as bad losers.
In a statement he personally signed, Akindele said: “They (APC) are bad losers. Why are you bothered about what they are saying? The governor is very much around, the committees are working. The opposition is only jittery because most of their irresponsive and nefarious activities are being exposed daily.”
Meanwhile, the governor has ordered the investigation of the Public Procurement Agency, also known as the Due Process Office, to determine the extent of its culpability in the non-remittance of tender fees to the state treasury and contract manipulation in the last four years.
In a statement signed by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed , Adeleke directed the agency and other relevant government agencies to immediately begin the process of recovering all outstanding tender fees on contract awards and Memorandum of Understanding which the state was a party to in the last four years.
