Suspended Ogun LG Chairman Released From DSS Custody
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The suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State, Wale Adedayo, detained by the Department of State Services (DSS), has regained his freedom.
Adedayo had accused the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, of withholding the statutory federal allocations due to the twenty local government areas of the state, an allegation which the state government denied during a press conference held in the state capital.
It was learnt that the suspended chairman was grilled for several hours at the DSS headquarters in Abeokuta before he was detained and eventually released.
Adedayo said, “Claimed there is a letter from the governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, that I was making inciting comments against the state government but I told them that there was nothing like that or who did they say I have incited? They said that I was planning a protest but I said I don’t know anything about that and I told them that I had only done what my conscience said that I should and this I did with my other colleagues and chairmen even though they all ran back. My conscience is very clear in the letter I wrote to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the former governor of the state and a national leader of our party, APC.
“Some of the chairmen had input into the letter, I only did the editing of the letter, put my name there, and then sent it and what is written in the letter affects all the council chairmen, so it is not about getting their backing or not. So what the governor wanted me to do was to do a retraction of what the letter contained but I said that I won’t do that. The DSS later said the governor said that I have embarrassed him and I said if the governor felt that I have embarrassed him, I am sorry but the truth is that the facts are there for “I am not fighting with Governor Abiodun, he is my friend, he’s my egbon, my senior brother but my take is if the local governments are doing well, it’s all to the credit of Mr Governor.
“He is the one people will be talking about and I gave them the example of the government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel between 2003 to 2011. If you go to the 236 wards in the state you will see the footprints of this government at the grassroots, the people will be saying Daniel did this, he did that but it was the local government chairmen that did all of these projects yet people till today will be shouting the name of Gbenga Daniel. All of these were made possible because the governor allowed the local governments to have access to their federal allocations.
“So, I said the same thing will be happening if Governor Abiodun allows the local governments to have access to their funds. And then they came up with the issue of being sponsored, I am 57 and I know what is good for the people, no one is sponsoring me and they said that I should apologise and do a retraction but I said no. I said if the governor said that he was embarrassed I am sorry but I equally added that if the governor had funded the local governments all would have been to his credit, I wrote all of this for the DSS.”
When told that the Joint Account Allocation Committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the council fund in the state has said that no dime of the local governments was missing, Adedayo said, “Let them tell that to the EFCC, I have sent my letters to them. Who is even JAAC? This concerns the local government chairmen and if each of them claimed that they have been collecting the money meant to develop their council areas they should be ready to give account to the people.”
The suspended council boss also said that he would soon challenge what he called his illegal suspension in court saying that all the allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers were tissues of lies and mere fabrication.
His release followed a statement credited to Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights activist, Femi Falana, who called for his release from the DSS custody
