Again, Adeleke’s Contract Award Sparks Rumpus

Governor Ademola Adeleke has again been accused of nepotism on the contracts awarded by his administration. 

The Governor’s brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke, and international hip-hop star, David Adeleke, popularly called Davido, were alleged to be beneficiaries of a N50 billion contract in Osun State. 

This is coming barely a week after OSUN DEFENDER’s report that the Governor awarded an N10.6 billion contract to an inactive company owned by his kinsmen. 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) accused Adeleke of converting the running of the state “into his extended family enterprise, where probity, accountability, and openness are not required.”

APC, in a press statement signed by its Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, on Tuesday, accused Adeleke of awarding roads and flyover contracts to Dr. Deji Adeleke and musician David Adeleke through inactive companies. 

The party called on the anti-graft agencies to immediately move their operatives to Osun in order to halt what it described as “reckless mismanagement of public funds” under the present administration. 

The opposition party noted that Adeleke has violated the 2015 Public Procurement Law, disclosing that companies founded by the incumbent Deputy Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Akinyode Oyewusi, were also awarded contracts.

“To state that Governor Adeleke has converted the running of the state into his extended family enterprise where probity, accountability, and openness are not required cannot be an overstatement,”  said the APC. 

The party further said: “Tongues are currently wagging in Osun State that the billionaire brother of Governor Adeleke, Dr Deji Adeleke, and his son, Mr David Adeleke, a.k.a. ‘Davido’ are interested parties in the touted multi-billion naira road and flyover projects, using inactive and inexperienced companies to front for them. 

“The financial injection through the supposed infrastructure is being circumvented and cornered by the Adeleke family, using the business names of Dr Deji Adeleke and the juvenile lawmaker from Ife North State constituency of Osun State.”

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has debunked the allegations that Dr Deji Adeleke and his son were beneficiaries of any contract awarded by the state government.

PDP urged APC to stop seeing the Adeleke family in the image of former governor Gboyega Oyetola “whose members of family have no known source of engagement outside government.” 

The party, in a statement signed by its chairman, Hon Sunday Bisi, said Adeleke did not violate any procurement law and never turned the government affair into a family issue.

Bisi said unlike Oyetola and his men who allegedly looted government quarters and illegally carted away government vehicles when leaving office, the current administration has been prudent in its spending.  

He said: “We first want to vehemently deny allegations that the state government violated the state procurement law. It is an unfounded allegation. We also denied a defamatory allegation by Soko Lawal that the Adeleke family is looting the state treasury through contract awards. 

“We affirm that the state government is not only complying with extant laws but prudently deploying available resources to develop the state infrastructure. Mr Governor is a leader of due process, rule of law and fear of God. 

“Oyetola and his men looted government quarters and illegally carted away government vehicles. Like I said in my statement on Monday, we did not probe the multi-billion naira fraud and looting by the former governor because we are interested in rescuing our dear state.

“It is public knowledge that the Adeleke family are enterprising, with several known businesses in Nigeria and abroad. The Osun APC should stop seeing the Adeleke family in the image of that of the former governor whose members of family have no known source of engagement outside government, cornering almost everything to themselves including printing jobs at the secretariat while it was at the helm.

“There is no established link of any of the companies to Dr Deji Adeleke or his son, David Adeleke (Davido). 

“We understand the perilous situation of the Osun APC but we expect them to at least be reasonable in the quest to manufacture lies.

“We take the reckless accusation of the Osun APC as a failed strategy to drag the serial investor into their shameless rhetoric and we enjoin the public to totally discountenance this irresponsible blackmail attempt by the feckless opposition in Osun state.