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Defends Adeleke’s Stance on Case
- Safiu Kehinde
The Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its press conference held on the disputed N13.7 billion payroll fraud discovered by an account auditing firm, Sally Tibbot.
NPO Reported that the firm’s CEO, Saadat Ottun, had on Thursday evening made an appearance on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme where she recounted how her firm was contacted by the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration to conduct the audit following suspicion of ghost workers in the workforce.
While expressing her disappointment with the state government’s refusal to implement the report of the findings, Saadat highlighted some of the firm’s discoveries which included identification of over 8,000 ghost workers with over N13.7 billion paid to them annually.
She also alleged that over 5000 salaries were linked to two separate accounts.
Reacting to the claims in a statement issued on Friday by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke accused the firm of inflating the figures.
In what he labelled as fake news allegedly sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rasheed held that more than two-third of those declared as ghost workers by Sally Tibbot were confirmed to be active workers.
The govenrnor’s spokesperson said that 8,015 out of the 8,448 alleged ghost workers were confirmed to be actively working at their respective designations.
He accused Sally Tibbot of inflating the figure in a bid to get an increased payment for the audit.
In the wake of the governor’s reaction, the APC would organise a press conference where they called for probe by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the involvement of Adeleke’s brother, Deji Adeleke, in the review of the audit.
The APC also demanded the anti-graft agencies’ investigation on every individual indicted in the payroll fraud.
Reacting to the party’s statement, the PDP accused the APC of attempting to weaponise the disputed payroll fraud report against Adeleke despite the fact that the fraud was discovered under the administration of the APC in the state.
The Osun PDP, in a statement issued on Friday by its Chairman, Sunday Bisi, labelled the APC’s address as rantings of a rejected opposition which does not deserve a response.
Bisi however clarified that the period under which the audit was conducted fell under the period of the APC’s administration in the state.
He maintained that the period under audit was led by APC political actors whose alleged maladministration plunged Osun State into financial opacity.
The PDP Chairman defended Adeleke’s stance on the audit, stressing that a government that voluntarily subjects itself to scrutiny cannot logically be the architect of the crime it seeks to uncover.
“First, the PDP aligns completely with the position already made public by the Osun State Government: the allegation is nothing, but an APC-sponsored propaganda built around a deeply disputed audit report whose coverage period predates the assumption of office of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
“We understand that the staff audit exercise in question covered the most troubling era of payroll manipulation between 2018 and November 2022, a period dominated largely by the APC administration.
“Therefore, if truly there were fraudulent payment schedules amounting to over ₦13 billion annually, moral responsibility and explanation must rest squarely at the doorsteps of the APC which superintended the payroll architecture during those years.
“It is therefore curious that those who presided over the system at the time under review now cry louder than the bereaved.
“The PDP states unequivocally that since assuming office, Governor Ademola Adeleke has complied with all financial regulations and strengthened transparency mechanisms in public finance management. In this age of digital payroll systems, Treasury Single Account compliance and the vigilant monitoring framework of federal financial intelligence structures like NFIU, the APC’s claim collapses under the weight of logic.
“More instructive is the fact that the governor himself initiated the audit and openly invited investigation by anti-corruption agencies.
“A government that voluntarily subjects itself to scrutiny cannot logically be the architect of the crime it seeks to uncover.
“What we see instead is a senseless opposition attempting to weaponise a disputed consultant report after the same consultant refused to participate in a joint review committee and after thousands of legitimately employed workers, including lecturers and senior officials largely employed under the defeated APC administration, were falsely labelled ghost workers.” The statement partly read.
The PDP further slammed the APC for attempting to discredit Adeleke’s administration with a payroll fraud the opposition party was largely responsible for.
“The PDP also finds it revealing that the APC has suddenly become the loudest defender of a consultant whose figures crumbled under simple verification.
“Birds of the same feather, indeed, flock together. The people of Osun can now clearly see the political partnership between a discredited party and a questionable report designed to discredit a performing government.
“Let it be stated clearly, Governor Ademola Adeleke and the fraudulent style of governance that defined the APC era are parallel lines that will never meet.
“The current administration did not and will never engage in underhand dealings capable of crippling the state.
“If there is any fraud to be investigated, it is the legacy payroll mess inherited from the past government, the very system now being sanitised through reforms introduced by the Adeleke administration.” The statement read further.
The PDP challenged the APC to stop the propaganda and instead present verifiable evidence, if any, to anti-corruption agencies rather than staging what it described as media calisthenics.
It held that Osun people are politically enlightened beyond some ‘beer parlour crafting’.
“They understand that the noise of the opposition grows louder whenever transparent governance exposes the rot of the past.” The party said.
The PDP reiterated its full confidence in Adeleke’s commitment to accountability and welcomes any credible investigation that will permanently uncover the truth.