DSS detains Ogun LG boss, committee denies missing funds
The Department of State Security Services has apprehended Wale Adedayo, the suspended chairman of Ogun State’s Ijebu East Local Government Area.
Adedayo appeared at the DSS facility in Oke-Imosan, Abeokuta, at 11.45 am on Friday as a result of a secret police invitation. Saturday PUNCH exclusively learned that the DSS neglected to question Adedayo.
The governor was seen driving into the DSS building shortly after Adedayo arrived there, and they later met at the operations desk with the suspended chairman.
“The DSS has detained Wale Adedayo just now. They asked us to leave, that they’re not ready to interrogate him yet. But they were the ones that kept calling him since morning to come to their office for interrogation, and he arrived around 11.45am, but he was not allowed to go in with his mobile phone,” a family source told one of our correspondents on Friday.
An eyewitness, who simply identified himself as Jide, also said, “The DSS just chased us away from their office here in Abeokuta close to the governor’s office. They said they’re not ready to investigate the chairman for now. But the governor was here hours ago, and he left around 4pm, but he met with the chairman before he left.”
Adedayo had previously told Saturday PUNCH that he honored the secret police’s invitation and that he would testify before the House of Assembly about it.
The embattled council boss had alleged that local government areas in the state had been receiving zero allocation from the Federal Government purse since 2021, alleging that about N10.8bn belonging to the council areas in the state was missing.
In a letter to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the party’s national leader and a former governor, Adedayo pleaded with him to persuade the governor to release money intended for councils. Adedayo was suspended by seven councillors in the area on Thursday over 15 allegations involving alleged financial mismanagement of more than N50 million.
He also penned a petition asking the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to look into any charges of corruption made against the state government over LG allocations.
The state administration, however, insisted that the Joint Account and Allocation Committee members in Ogun State were in charge of administering the LG allocations and refuted the claim of cash mismanagement.
In a related incident, JAAC members refuted claims that money from the local government was misappropriated.
According to them, all funds agreed by the committee at its monthly meeting were always sent through the various local government council accounts.
The committee members appeared before the state House of Assembly to give clarification over the allegation of fund diversion as alleged by Adedayo.
According to a statement from the Assembly, the JAAC members explained that the process of fund administration took place monthly at a meeting.
They added that it was at the meeting that all first-line charges, including primary school teachers’ salaries, LG pension, traditional council, leave bonus and check-off dues of labour unions were aggregated among LG chairmen and payment made.
They said that on occasion, the state government had to make up the difference so that all local government councils could take care of their first-line expenses.
The Assembly did, however, forbid media covering the state from entering the location on Friday.
The entrance gate to the Assembly’s grounds was closed to media.
The journalists were politely asked for their names and informed that their names were not on the list of those expected by security personnel from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps assigned to the Assembly.
The prohibition on media entering the Assembly, according to one of the members who confided in our correspondent, was a “order from above.”
