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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Oyo State House of Assembly sacked the chairman, Irepo Local Government Area, Kisi, Mr. Lateef Sulaiman Adediran.
The assembly made the announcement on Thursday, following the presentation of the report of the Joint Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy Matters, State Honours and Public Accounts, Finance and Appropriation that investigated allegation of ”running of local government with impunity” levelled against the chairman.
The house said that Adediran was removed from office in line with Section 21 of the Local Government Law, 2001(as amended).
It directed the vice chairman to immediately assume the position of acting chairman while the Leader of the House, Mr Busari Adegbenro, is to fill the position of the acting vice chairman.
The report found the Adediran culpable of allegations of diversion of public funds meant for the purchase of Toyota Camry 2016 model.
According to the report, Adediran purchased Lexus for his office without approval and also purchased sub-standard Toyota Corolla for the office of the Head of Local Government Administration.
Recall that Adediran had earlier been indicted by the Office of the Auditor-General for Local Government in the state and the report of the special investigation was submitted to the assembly.
The assembly also directed the executive Arm of government through the Ministries of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters and Justice to ensure that Adediran “refund a sum of N4,616,800.00 to the coffers of Irepo Local Government, being the difference between unreasonable N5.8 million spent on replacement of covers of exercise books.”
“The Leader of the Council, Councillor Mutalubi Adigun Salami whose account was credited with the sum of N2,676,000,00 as deduction of party dues from salaries of political office holders from February, 2022 to March, 2023 should immediately refund the sum of N2,676,000,00 to the coffers of the Peoples Democratic Party, Irepo Local Government and the evidence of payment be submitted the House within one week,” the report added.
