Immediate past caretaker chairman of Ibadan North West local government area, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, who was invited by the Special Financial Intelligence Unit, SFIU, Ikoyi, Lagos has been cleared of financial allegation, especially the one relating to Fan Milk Plc, insideoyo.com has learnt.
Acting on a petition, the unit had invited Olatubosun, who is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Oyo State, for questioning on financial allegation.
The invitation is coming few months after the former publicity secretary and secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and some of his colleagues who served as council bosses till May 2015, honoured the invitation of the Ibadan office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
It was gathered that a certain politician in the state was unhappy with the ‘vital information’ Olatubosun and some others disclosed to the anti-graft agency.
At the SFIU’s Ikoyi, Lagos office on Monday, Olatubosun was questioned for close to three hours before he was cleared and allowed to go home.
Sources said that Olatubosun, armed with the recommendations of a panel set up by Governor Abiola Ajimobi in 2016, ‘tackled’ the questions intelligently.
“He defended himself with the report which was submitted in March, 2017, having laid his hands on it,” the source added.
“He was asked many questions. When asked if he has property in Alalubosa GRA, he told them that he would be glad if officials of the Unit can locate the alleged building and seal it. He said that if truly he has a property in the GRA, why did they bring the letter of invitation to his Ologuneru residence, which he said was built between 2004 and 2007, when he was a councillor.
“When it got to the alleged diversion of money paid by one oil company in the state, he asked officials to tell him the name of the company, if truly such company exist in the state.
“Officials of the agency later ran a test on his 3 bank accounts through his BVN. They came back and told him to go,” the source added.
Insideoyo.com was told how some council officials, one of which is at large, had gone behind to collect land use charge from Fan Milk without the knowledge of the council chairman.
In the recommendations of the committee, those who were found guilty of the financial allegations- “Messrs Tolase Saheed, Ajayi Segun and Akinyemi Sunday Olusegun, the owner of Soterial Global Enterprise, a revenue consultant” claimed to be appointed by the LG, were said to have diverted for personal use the sum of N16, 500, 000 out of the N17, 500, 000 paid by FAN Milk Plc at the rate of N3.5m per annum as tenement rates for the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
This, insideoyo.com gathered, was made possible through the connivance of some officials of the council and FAN Milk.
Tolase, who was a senior estate and valuation officer in charge of tenement rate before he was posted to Akinyele, insideoyo.com learnt, was said to have confessed during interogation that he received a kickback of N250, 000 at two different times as his share of N2.5m of the year 2012 tenement rate from Ajayi, who is now at large. Tolase, whose salary has been put on hold, has signed an undertaken to pay the money from his monthly salary for 20 months. This is in addition to the N3m to be recovered from him. Ajayi, who is still wanted by Police, is to return the sum of N3m. Akinyemi was said to have been tracked through one of his referees and was eventually arrested on 21st December, 2016 before he was handed over to the Police at Agodi.
It is, however, recommended that the sum of N7, 630, 776.30 being the years of 2013-2016 land use charge plus penalty for late payment as at 29th July, 2016 should be recovered from the company.
Olatubosun was, however, unreachable for comment as at the time of filing this story.
