The controversy over which administration opened a secret account and stashed a jaw-dropping N4.3 billion, intensified yesterday with the Ondo State House of Assembly vowing to unravel the mystery behind what it described as malfeasance of public funds and gross abuse of office. Amid accusations, counter-accusations and finger pointing, the Ondo lawmakers are seeking among other details, the source of the funds, the date the money was lodged into the account, the person who authorized the lodging, signatories to the account and the accrued interest to date.
Sequel to the discovery of the N4.3 billion stashed in a secret account of a third generation bank, the
Chairman House Committee on Information, Olugbenga Omole, said in a statement that they’d do everything within their power to investigate the scandal. Revelations about the fund came to the fore at plenary when the House Committee on Public Accounts raised the matter and questioned the executive concerning the funds.
There controversy over which regime opened the account intensified as the statement released by the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, to absolve the present administration, suggested the fraud happened during the immediate past administration of governor Olusegun Mimiko. But an aide to Mimiko refuted the allegation, declaring that investigations showed the account was opened more than 10 years ago before Mimiko was sworn in as governor in 2009.
House Committee Chairman, Edamisan Ademola, who first raised it at Tuesday’s plenary, reeled out the list of banks which at various times benefitted from the alleged secret transactions. Edamisan challenged the competence of the Accountant General for failing to produce necessary documents bearing the transactions and the accrued interest to date. He maintained that if the statements of financial transactions in the listed banks were not supplied as requested, the House would be forced to take necessary steps as provided in the constitution.
Responding to questions, Commissioner for Finance, Wale Akinterinwa, pledged to provide the necessary documents, claiming he facilitated the recovery of the money. Speaker of the House, Bamidele Oleyelogun, mandated the Commissioner and the Accountant General to furnish the House with documents on the alleged secret transactions latest Thursday, May 21, 2020.
A financial expert in the state, Rotimi Ogunleye said: “As usual, we are more concerned about who discovered it and how much was in the account rather than the implications of it on the finance of the state and its propriety. It is shocking that a whole monthly salary of both civil servants and other public servants in the entire state of ours were missing from the government coffers without anybody knowing for ten good years.
Other than the political noise from its discovery, we must begin to think and be bothered about the bleak future that awaits us. What kind of a fraudulent system will encourage the secrecy of such huge amount of public funds in a secret account for ten undetected years?” He wondered why the money was kept secret for over 10 years and the bank didn’t deem it necessary to inform the state government or accountant general. He urged the Assembly to get to the root of the matter, adding that the matter should not be reduced to legislative banters where only voice votes would be used to decide the matter.
But the Commissioner for Finance in late Olusegun Agagu’s regime, whose government was said to be involved in the fraud, Tayo Alasoadura, said Agagu’s administration didn’t operate any secret account. Alasoadura, who is the Minister of State for Niger Delta, said all bank accounts operated by the administration were in the name of Ondo State Government and all were on record. He, however, noted that the inability of the administration to properly hand over to Mimiko in 2009 due to the Court judgement that sacked Agagu as governor might have contributed to the error. He disclosed that late Agagu’s administration left over N30 billion in the treasury of the government as against a debt of N170 billion being claimed by Mimiko at the time.
