Osun Govt, Oyetola’s Aide Trade Words Over Alleged Violation Of Procurement Law

The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola has accused the Osun State Government of lying about an alleged violation of the procurement law during his time as governor of the state. 

OSUN DEFENDER reports that an online medium, Sahara Reporters had noted that the state government under Oyetola violated procurement laws in the award of a N700 million contract. 

The report stated that the Oyetola administration awarded a N700 million contract for the rehabilitation of “Gof junction-Florentino School junction along Ori-Oke Oloruntosin, Ilupeju,” three times between July 2020 and April 2021. 

“In July 2020, the state awarded a contract to the sum of N233.4 million for rehabilitation of the road, the contract was awarded by the Osun State Road Maintenance Agency but was not awarded to any company, instead it was carried out under Direct Labour. 

“On May 1, 2021, the Osun state government awarded another contract with the same contract description for rehabilitation of the road at the tune of N233.4 million. Two days later on May 3, 2021, the Osun state government awarded another contract for the same project at N233.4 million. These two contracts in three days were awarded by the state Ministry of Works and Transport,” the report reads in part.

The report further added that all the contracts were awarded through direct labour without any competitive bidding.

But the spokesperson to former Governor Oyetola, Ismail Omipidan, while reacting to the report, described it as misleading and a clear act of mischief.

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Omipidan accused the state government under Senator Ademola Adeleke of sidestepping the original procurement portal’s website.

He said the government migrated data from the original website into theirs to suit their narrative to mislead unsuspecting members of the public, including Sahara Reporters.

He said, “A scrutiny of the website would show that what they input there on Monday, July 15, (the day Sahara Reporters published the story) is different from what one would find there yesterday and today. 

“For instance, contrary to what they entered on Monday which indicated the GoF road contract appeared in three places, by yesterday, Tuesday, July 16, only number 36 showed the real contract and the sum, while 72 and 103 are all gone. What you now see on 36, is Ila rehabilitation, and 103, rehabilitation of grading of Ofatedo, as against GoF road rehabilitation mentioned as contract No.72  and 103 on their www.egp.osunstate.gov.ng. website on Monday.

“This is clearly one of the numerous fraudulent claims of the current administration in Osun.

“The procurement portal’s website “Gov.ng” was created by the current administration procurement. We only created “Org.ng”. The procurement website,  www.ocdsosun.org.ng, which was created under our administration, is there for any member of the public to peruse to help this current public discourse. 

“If they want to migrate those data on the website we created to theirs, they should be honest enough to migrate genuine data and not attempt to tamper with them just to paint us black in the eyes of the public. When a contract is carried out through Direct Labour, one does not need any bidding from any competing contracting firm, contrary to the picture the Senator Ademola Adeleke administration is trying to paint.

“The said road was awarded once. Fund was disbursed once, as against three times touted in the mischievous report. I will, therefore, implore Sahara Reporters to verify my claim and go a step further by scrutinising all the contracts awarded during our tenure as well as those by the current administration since November 2022 when it came on board, then, it will be clearer to members of the public and Sahara Reporters that they are the ones that have violated Due Process and procurement law since they came on board.”

Reacting to Omipidan’s allegations, the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said Oyetola’s spokesperson distorted the facts, adding that the report was independently carried out by Sahara Reporters, without any input of the Ademola Adeleke-led administration. 

Alimi said Oyetola will go down in history as the ‘poorest’ ever experienced by the people of the state, adding that no amount of packaging could be done for the ex-governor’s failed government.