Violation Of Due Process, Procurement Law: Omipidan Blasts Osun Government 

…Provides Evidence Road Project Commenced Before Tendering

By Joseph Sunday 

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Chief Press Secretary to the former Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, Ismail Omipidan, has described the Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration as a government founded on “dubious and fraudulent” claims.

He further noted that a government that came in without an idea of what it wanted to do would continue to falter and lie to the public to cover for its ineptitude, incompetence and dubious tendencies because getting empirical evidence to back up their “dubious and fraudulent” claims would continue to remain a daunting task for it. 

Reacting to claim by the government, as contained in the press statement signed and released by its Information Commissioner, Hon. Kolapo Alimi, that Omipidan lied when he said the government misled Sahara Reporters to publish a false story that Oyetola allegedly violated procurement law, Oyetola’s spokesman insisted that the government should have stated how it came about the data on the portal on its Procurement website to counter his claim rather than just say he lied without any iota proof.

He added that, for a government which claimed more than a year ago that it had compiled all the alleged infractions committed by the Oyetola’s administration, especially in the award of contracts, to now say it needed two weeks to respond to an inquiry from a news medium to confirm the data inputted by its agents, shows that the government is either mischievous or unserious or both.

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“I challenged the government to show proof that my Principal, His Excellency, Adegboyega Oyetola, indeed awarded the contract thrice. No response. I stated that you cleverly side-stepped the original procurement portal’s website and migrated data from it into yours to suit your wicked and malicious narrative to mislead unsuspecting members of the public, including the Sahara Reporters. No response. Instead, you said I lied. Where is the lie, when you are unable to puncture my claims with hard facts?  Did you create a new procurement website or not? Did you migrate data from our own to yours or not? Was the data you imputed there on July 15, which was the basis of Sahara Reporters’ story different from what was there on July 16 or not? These are the issues I expected Hon. Alimi, who has become a mess cleaner of the Adeleke’s administration and Dynasty, to respond to, not ranting and calling me a liar without evidence to controvert my claims.

“On your challenge to me to provide proof that your government violated procurement law which you and the governor’s spokesman admitted, I am glad you had no defence to offer on behalf of my colleague and brother, Mr. Olawale Rasheed. However, in case he also wants to deny, let me referesh his memory. The interview was conducted by Mr. Femi Olanipekun on Rave’s Frank Talk when he was trying to defend the boreholes contract award. As for that of Alimi, the government’s spokesperson, it was Mr. Daniel that conducted the interview. The only reason I will not upload the clip now is that I have noticed you guys have mastered the act of cleaning up your mess from the Internet. This is why even though everyone heard Governor Adeleke as candidate of the PDP say he was going to clear salary and pension arrears in six months when he is elected , one can no longer find the clip again on the Internet. What you have is the response from my Principal, reacting to the claim where he said candidates should not lie or say what was practically impossible simply because they want electorate to vote for them. Therefore, at the appropriate time, you will see them. The picture attached which was the advert the government published on the 25/09/23,  indicated that there was an earlier advert, calling for bidding for that road project and that it was only extended through the September advert. Apart from the fact that there was no evidence of the earlier advert being referred to, everyone knows that the project started long before September when the advert was published.  Isn’t that a clear violation of procurement law? That was the basis upon which you admitted government had perfected the process, ” Omipidan insisted.

On Oyetola’s performance as minister, Omipidan said there was no independent assessment carried out as claimed by Mr. Alimi, adding that “some mischief makers in your government only sexed up an opinion by one person and made it look like it was from the people.

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“Thank God, my principal was vindicated by PEBEC, a presidential council led by the Vice President of Nigeria, which declared him the best Minister in Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria. No honour could be better than that.

” Look here, there is no basis for comparison between my principal, a man with an unblemished track record of private sector experience before going into politics, and a layabout and lotus eater who had to wait for stipend from his siblings to make a living and who only came to prominence in Osun in 2014 when he was stereotyped as a musical interlude to attract crowd at campaign ground. Mr. Alimi, like I told you in February this year, may Allah spare our lives, you will apologise to Osun people for taking part in spending 22 billion naira of Osun’s money on food and entertainment in the Governor’s office in 18 months, while allocating a paltry 3 billion to Agriculture,” he submitted.

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