Oyo Assembly Uncovers Massive Fraud In 2018–2019 Local Government Books, Moves To Sanction Culprits

By Henry Odeh

The Oyo State House of Assembly has uncovered what it called duplication of projects, outrageous contract sum, and abandonment of projects in the activities of Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas in Oyo state between May 2018 and June 2019.

This was part of the findings of the House Adhoc Committee set up to review and investigate the activities of the LGs and the LCDAs in the state in the year under review.

The report of the Committee was presented at the plenary by Hon Olusegun Popoola (South East II)

According to the report, the Committee discovered that some programmes and projects worth millions of naira executed by the 33 LGs and 35 LCDAs in the state within the period under review had same titles with same amounts, and were repeatedly captured in the expenditure.

The report also noted that expenses incurred by the authorities of the councils for the clearing and evacuation of refuse were outrageous while the committee reports also showed that there were no ongoing projects in the various council areas.

The Speaker, Hon Adebo Ogundoyin in his while giving his remark described as unfortunate, that the Chairmen abused their offices by inflating project costs, duplicating them as well as embarking on projects that have been discovered to be non existent.

“Posterity will not judge us right if we fail to perform our oversight duty of serving as watchdogs and monitoring of the activities of the Local Government and Local Council Development Areas. We are determined to work with Governor Seyi Makinde towards sanitizing the activities of the local councils.”

“We are poised to put in place an efficient and effective local council system that not only improve the system but also engender robust and impactful development at the local and community levels” the speaker said.

Other lawmakers in their contributions frowned at the activities of the sacked council Chairmen and warned the present caretaker chairmen across the 68 local government areas and LCDAs to shun any act capable of discrediting the image of the present administration.

While announcing the setting up of another Committee to look into the report, the house resolved among others to sanction any chairman in this dispensation who is found guilty of project duplication and cost inflation.

The Committee also called on the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy matters to conduct technical audit of all equipment bought in the LGs and LCDAs within the year under review