Alleged N30bn Fraud: EFCC Quizzes Ogun Speaker Today

Written by This Day Wednesday, 07 July 2010

The dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into the alleged N30bn fraud in Ogun State involving land receipts and council funds is spreading by the day.

Today, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Tunji Egbetokun is expected to be a guest of the anti-graft agency to explain all he knows about the fraud that has already implicated top officials of Ogun state government.
A source close to the investigation, however, declined to name the seven council chairmen who made the startling revelations in other not to prejudice ongoing investigations.

“In the course of investigations of the N30 billion alleged fraud in Ogun state, seven of the council chairmen invited for interrogations narrated how funds meant for the Local Government Areas in the state were diverted and  Speaker (Tunji) Egbetokun’s name was mentioned in connection with this,” the source said.
The meanwhile, the detained Director General of the Ogun State Land Bureau and Surveying in the Governor’s Office, Gbenga Ogunoiki may be detained up till next week by the EFCC.

The anti-graft agency had about two weeks ago secured the nod of a Federal High Court Abuja to keep Ogunoiki in detention for two weeks to avert his tampering with material evidences of the investigation. THISDAY, however, gathered that the Ogun land bureau chief approached the court seeking a review of the conditions of his bail by the EFCC.

Though the details of the bail cannot be readily confirmed, it was gathered that the detained director is yet to meet the conditions of the reviewed bail and consequently will remain in the custody of the Commission until the bail conditions are met.
Operatives of the EFCC recently visited Ogun state and sealed-off a filing station along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, multi-million naira Living Spring Holiday Resort in Ode Remo and a mansion in Isara, all properties of Ogunoiki.

And last two month, the agency got a breakthrough in investigations of the N30bn alleged fraud when it invited directors in the Bureau to Abuja for interrogation.

The directors– Mrs. A. O. Adekumu (Surveyor-General), Kunle Lanre Osopa (Director, Land Services), Adewunmi Solomon Alade (Director, Finance) and Rasheed Sefiu Aremu (Administration),– were said to have provided the EFCC with “very important leads) and were subsequently granted administrative bail by the agency for their cooperation.

Ogunoiki, who was detained by the EFCC after his interrogation was said to be the conduit pipe used by top officials of the state government to siphon money from the land bureau. It was gathered that he has refused to provide the Commission with documents relating to how the disbursements were made.