The very recent Sallah celebration is leaving its paunchy foul smell polluting the sweet aroma of roasted sallah rams as the Oyo State Government led by Governor Seyi Makinde is currently enmeshed in a N62m Ileya ram scandal.
Authoritative inside government sources reveal that after GSM approved the purchase of rams worth N62 million naira, government staffers went ahead to collect the funds from the Accountant General’s office, then proceeded with the purchase of rams.
This irked the Governor who expected the money to be given to him and has therefore redeployed Wale Bolarinwa his Director of Protocol, sacked his Personal Assistant Akeem Azeez, ( efforts are ongoing to reinstate him because “he knows too much”) and redeployed the Accountant General.
Governor Makinde is insisting on a refund of the N62m to him. Apparently, the Governor had other intentions and probably wanted a crony to make the purchase for pecuniary gains.
Tongues are however wagging with questions which include: Did the Governor truly approve the file? If yes, what is wrong with the release of funds by the AG?
Why did the Governor go and borrowing to purchase his own set of rams? Were rams purchased indeed and at what cost?
If they were purchased, were they distributed to intended beneficiaries? Who did the Governor intend to make the rams purchase? Where is the N62m hanging?
With two sets of rams purchased by the Governor on one hand and the civil servants on the other, where are the rams or the excess of it?
Why is the Head of Service excluded from the Governor’s wrath? Answers to these and many more must come imperatively, for it is clear that it is not yet uhuru in Oyo State.
Certainly, Governor Makinde’s Anti Corruption Agency has its first case on hand.
Like the title of a popular novel says ” The beautiful ones are not yet born”
Kareem Olatunji writes from Bodija, Ibadan.
