Planned anti-corruption bill meant to shield Akeredolu family, says PDP as govt kicks

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Planned anti-corruption bill meant to shield Akeredolu family, says PDP as govt kicks

The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has accused the state House of Assembly of planning to sponsor an anti-corruption bill, which was forwarded to it in December 2021 to favour Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s family.

According to the PDP, the House is scheduled to pass the bill tagged, ‘A bill for a law to establish the Ondo State Public Complaints, Financial Crime and Anti-corruption Commission and others connected thereto 2021’, soon and it is carefully crafted to give sweeping exclusive powers to the agency in matters of corruption in the state.

This was contained in a statement by the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kennedy Peretei, titled, ‘Ondo State anti-corruption bill: An attempt by Akeredolu to shield his family from investigation’.

The statement read in part, “The PDP, Ondo State chapter, is in full support of an institutional framework to stamp out corruption in the state, if only the intentions are genuine and transparently honest. The Rotimi Akeredolu government has in several ways demonstrated that it is irredeemably soaked in the sea of corruption, especially his family. He can, therefore, not go behind the door to institute laws as a subterfuge for his activities to circumvent the law.

“Sections 14(3) and 14(4) of the proposed law state inter alia, ‘The commission shall, upon the commencement of this law, take over the investigation of all corruption and financial crimes cases involving the finances and assets of the Ondo State Government being investigated by any other agency’. Section 14(4) states: ‘The agency shall cause an investigation to be conducted into the properties of any public servant within the jurisdiction of the state if it appears to the commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by the person’s legitimate source of income.”

In reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said the PDP’s allegation was laughable and a display of ignorance.

Ojogo said, “The PDP’s claim that an anti-corruption bill is set to be passed by the state Assembly to allegedly protect the governor and his family from wrongdoings is not only preposterous but laughable. It exposes the level of unseriousness of a supposed opposition bereft of ideas, unwilling to obtain facts and self-cabined against information.

“‘The bill for a law to establish the Ondo State Public Complaints, Financial Crime and Anti-corruption Commission and others connected thereto 2021’ was deliberated upon at the level of the State Executive Council but was stepped down for wider consultation. At the moment, the memo has not received any Exco approval, and has therefore not been sent to the state House of Assembly. All the same, it is one bill that shall be pursued to a logical conclusion.

“For the record, the anti-corruption bill, when put in place, will serve the purpose of the state, rather than the warped imagination of the grossly deficient opposition. Those who started the formulation of the law had in mind to decentralise the anti-corruption fight to the federating units of the Nigerian federation. It suffices, therefore, that the rush to disseminate falsehood appears more important to the opposition PDP than the need for a truly federal Nigeria.”