The rights group under the aegis of Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has concluded plan to re-drag the former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged funds diversion.
This came following the failure of the anti-graft body to begin the prosecution of Aregbesola who was the ex-Governor of Osun State over alleged diversion of the State fund and that of the Local Govt for period of his administration to the tune of N600billion as widely reported recently in the media.
According to the group that visited the Ibadan Zonal office of the anti-graft body recently to ascertain the level of action on the subject matter, where they were told to re-write the petition in order to begin Aregbesola’s prosecution over the alleged financial crime.
The group insisted that during the tenure of Aregbesola as the Governor of Osun State, all the funds accrued to the State Govt cover then and particularly that of the Local Govt were misappropriated by him, his Commissioners for Finance, Local Govt and Chieftaincy Affairs, Wale Bolorunduro and Kolapo Alimi who is the current Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment respectfully.
Earlier, the State Government under the present administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has described the then Aregbesola administration as wicked for inflicting pains and pangs on the people of the State, noting that Osun masses were yet to forget the sordid and evil records of Aregbesola as a Governor of the State.
Adeleke through his Spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, castigated Aregbesola as “a man who left a legacy of huge state debt, half salary, scam tablets and several fanciful, inflated, uncompleted projects”, describing his tenure as “the worst in Osun history”.
It was also disclosed that the group would soon write the letter to the anti- graft agency as requested to begin the prosecution without further delaying, alleging Aregbesola and his cohorts of diverting the Local Govt allocations accrued to the State between January 2011 to December 2014, to the tune of N300billion.
Aregbesola who governed the State between the 2010 – 2018, was dragged before the anti-graft agencies for misappropriation of different funds accrued to the State from federation account and particularly, the Local Govt funds through phantom projects claimed to be carried out on behalf of the local govt in the State then.
CHRSJ also insisted that other sources of income accrued to the State Govt and that of Local Govt under Aregbesola then, including; Excess Crude Oil Fund, Sure-P Fund, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Fund.
Also, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Fund, Value Added Tax (VAT) Fund, Ecological Fund, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs now SDGs) Fund, and loans from local commercial banks and International financial institutions including; SUKUK funds.
Upon all these allocations that accrued to the State under Aregbesola for period of four years of his first term in office from the Federation Account amounting to over N600billion, Aregbesola then still plunged the State into the debt regime to the tune of N500 billion which makes the State not to pay its workforce including workers and retirees alike for the period of eight months and also 34 months half salaries and pensions which became the burden of successful govts.
It would be recalled that CHRSJ which was the leading group comprises of Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) under the leadership of Late Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman (aka Revolutionary Alfa), had earlier written different petition letters to the anti- graft agency with convincing tangible evidences, requesting for the immediate prosecution of Aregbesola after leaving office as a Governor of Osun State in 2018 due to the expiration of immunity of his exalted office then.This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the CHRSJ’s Deputy General Secretary (DGS), Comrade Abiola Ganiyu (Dove) and copies were made available to newsmen on Monday, maintained that Aregbesola had not shown any prudence in the management of the State and local govt resources to the State while serving as governor of the State.
The statement recalled that Aregbesola was a fail Governor during his tenure in the State by plunging the State into the financial quagmire for period of eight years of his govt which only successive administration safe the State from total collapsing, saying that his administration failed woefully by mismanaging all the resources allocated to the State at the period under review.
The statement, therefore, stated that Aregbesola lacks moral justification to condemn any government in office today by putting himself forward to be a leader of any political party to choose a leader for Osun State nay Nigeria.
