…He has no hands the running of the company – Govt
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has enjoined the nation’s Code of Conduct Bureau to investigate the serving Chief of Staff to Governor Ademola Adeleke, Alhaji Kazeem Akinleye.
According to the statement signed by the Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, alleged that the Chief of Staff used his influence to the state government to corner a two hundred and ninety seven million naira (N297m) Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) contract at the state-owned university, the UNIOSUN.
Olabisi disclosed that Akinleye’s actions and behaviour as a public officer did not conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability as he has put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicted with his duties and responsibilities as the administrative head of the office of the Governor of Osun State, in breach of the provision of the code of conduct (Part 1, Section 5 of the Act).
He said, “His justification elsewhere that he resigned from the company as a director on September 1st, 2022, shortly after he was appointed the Chief of Staff does not hold water as the management of the company still revolves around the members of his immediate family as an investigation at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) revealed.
“Similarly, the other excuse of the Chief of Staff, that the contract in question is a federal job within the TETFUND for which the company has all the legal rights to handle, is an afterthought and a mere misinformation invented to confuse and wriggle his way out of the contract logjam.
“We, as a party, are reminding Akinleye that TETFUND has nothing to do with the procurement of the project. It is solely that of the institution whose Governing Council’s members are direct appointees of the governor.
“So, whether Akinleye is a former director or a current director in AKINKAS INTERBIZ LIMITED with the registration number 770848, registered on 3rd September, 2008 with address number, 290, Station Road, Ede, Osun State, is not relevant.
“We enjoin the Code of Conduct Bureau to invite, investigate and possibly prosecute the said Akinleye as empowered by Parts 1, 3 (e) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ( as amended), just as we appeal to all patriots within and outside the state to rise above political sentiments and speak vehemently against this clear abuse of powers and contravention of the procurement laws of the state.
Reacting to the allegations, the Governor’s spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed in a statement affirmed that the accusation is baseless as the Chief of Staff has not violated any provisions of the Code of Conduct or any other extant laws for that matter.
The statement read that , “As a public officer, the Chief of Staff has not deployed his office to, in whatever ways, favour himself especially as he is not a member of the governing board of Osun State University nor a member of the board of directors of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
“Specifically too, Hon Akinleye had effectively ceased to be a director of the mentioned company ever before his appointment as the Chief of Staff and so cannot in any way be held accountable for the business operations of the said company.
“The Chief of Staff has never sat at any meeting or board deliberation where such a contract was determined and is therefore by all accounts not in breach of any provisions of the Code of Conduct or any subsisting laws of the land.
“The defamatory publication is therefore a reflection of what we noted earlier that the state APC has run out of ideas to tackle the superlative delivery of service by the Adeleke government and is now resorting to cheap blackmail and outright fake news”, the statement ended.
