The immediate past Commissioner for Commerce,
Industry and Cooperatives in Osun State, Mrs. Ayomide Farounbi-Seriki,
has absolved herself of complicity in the alleged embezzlement of $1m in
the Free Trade Zone project embarked upon by ex-Governor Olagunsoye
Oyinlola.
The incumbent governor of the state, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, had in January constituted a 10-man contract review committee to review both the N18.3bn borrowed by the Oyinlola government from the United Bank for Africa and the work done on the Tree Trade Zone.
In its report submitted to the governor recently, the committee headed by Mr. Adelana Odutola, lamented what it described as the fraudulent management of the funds for the Free Trade Zone and the N18.3bn loan.
Specifically, the committee, which did not indict Farounbi-Seriki, wondered why the Olagunsoye administration reposed executive responsibilities in the FTZ fund management in the ex-commissioner.
A portion of the report said, “It was interesting to note that the representative of the state government on the Board of Riverbank Trade and Investment Limited, Mrs Ayomide Farounbi-Seriki, the ex-Commissioner for Commerce, who was supposed to protect the financial interest of government in the business was a passive director.”
In a letter to Aregbesola, Farounbi-Seriki, who visited The PUNCH Office in Osogbo in company with her husband, on Sunday evening, said, “For my three years plus service as a Commissioner in Osun State, I did not secure nor obtain any contract from any agency in the state.
“The Osun State budgets for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 clearly indicated that the budgets for the Free Trade Zone were not located within the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, which I was privileged to be commissioner.”
The contract review committee had indicted the Olagusnoye Oyinlola administration for using the free trade zone project as a conduit through which the resources of the state were siphoned.
By Tunde Odesola, Osogbo Courtesy Of: Punch
The incumbent governor of the state, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, had in January constituted a 10-man contract review committee to review both the N18.3bn borrowed by the Oyinlola government from the United Bank for Africa and the work done on the Tree Trade Zone.
In its report submitted to the governor recently, the committee headed by Mr. Adelana Odutola, lamented what it described as the fraudulent management of the funds for the Free Trade Zone and the N18.3bn loan.
Specifically, the committee, which did not indict Farounbi-Seriki, wondered why the Olagunsoye administration reposed executive responsibilities in the FTZ fund management in the ex-commissioner.
A portion of the report said, “It was interesting to note that the representative of the state government on the Board of Riverbank Trade and Investment Limited, Mrs Ayomide Farounbi-Seriki, the ex-Commissioner for Commerce, who was supposed to protect the financial interest of government in the business was a passive director.”
In a letter to Aregbesola, Farounbi-Seriki, who visited The PUNCH Office in Osogbo in company with her husband, on Sunday evening, said, “For my three years plus service as a Commissioner in Osun State, I did not secure nor obtain any contract from any agency in the state.
“The Osun State budgets for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 clearly indicated that the budgets for the Free Trade Zone were not located within the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, which I was privileged to be commissioner.”
The contract review committee had indicted the Olagusnoye Oyinlola administration for using the free trade zone project as a conduit through which the resources of the state were siphoned.
By Tunde Odesola, Osogbo Courtesy Of: Punch
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