The immediate past Chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government and Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Babatunde Emilola-Gazal, on Monday insisted that the council Chairmen in the state knew nothing about the letter the former Chairman of Ijebu East, Wale Adedayo wrote last year August, alleging Gov Dapo Abiodun of diverting about N10.8bn meant for the 20 local governments in the state.
Emilola-Gazal disclosed this at a press briefing held at the Pess Centre of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Ogun State Council, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, on Monday.
The ALGON boss said that the briefing was essential to set the record straight regarding the recent interview Adedayo granted an online medium wherein he had among other things said that the council Chairmen who just finished their 3-years term last week Friday were in support of the letter.
It would be recalled that Adedayo had last year August written former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba accusing Gov Abiodun of diverting N10.8bn meant for the development of the local government.
The letter was however leaked to the press afterwhich Adedayo was impeached and he is currently standing trial before Abeokuta Magistrate Court for false allegation against Gov Abiodun and character defamation.
Addressing journalists on Monday, Emilola-Gazal flanked by the former Chairman of Ifo local government, Mrs Kikelomo Adelano said that, after Adedayo wrote the letter without the approval of anyone one of them and dropped it on the WhatsApp group for the local government chairmen, he was told to suspend further action on the letter and must also ensure that the letter was only received by Chief Osoba.
He said that surprisingly, by the following day the letter had become common material doing the rounds on social media.
He said "in the morning of Tuesday, 29th August, 2023, Wale called to inform me that the Secretary to the State Government called and asked him why he wrote such a letter and sent it out to the media. He said he told him that it was ALGON that mandated him to do it.
'I also asked him why he did it, especially when the body had told him to cease further spread of the letter after sending it to Chief Osoba.
"He said it was a senior journalist colleague that spread it. He sought my support in case the State government enquires from me.
Few minutes after the call, I got a call from the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, asking if we, ALGON, asked Wale to write the letter. I answered in the affirmative.
"I did this in the belief that, as the Chairman of Chairmen, I should protect him from the likely consequences of his action"
Emilola-Gazal said that as a way to resolve the crisis, the local government chairmen met at Abeokuta South Local Government, Ake and decided to go beg the governor even though there were dissenting voices who believed that Adedayo should suffered alone.
He said "the meeting at Ake was to salvage the situation and not leave him alone in that period of trouble, it was not to ratify what he wrote. There was never a meeting where he was asked to write anything. Wale acted alone".
The former council boss said "at the meeting with the State government team at Osoba Press Centre, Okemosan, it was agreed that we plead with the Governor, especially on Wale's behalf, hence our going to beg his Excellency to forgive and let go.
"The governor accepted the plea and promised that he would ensure that the Local Governments are supported to ensure that we overcome the paucity of funds and deliver as expected by our constituents.
"Wale Adedayo fully partook in all the deliberations and also prostrated to ask the governor for forgiveness.
After the group plea, I personally took him back to the governor and he prostrated, once again. About 5 of us joined him in begging the governor.
"We had an understanding with the Secretary to the State Government that, henceforth, there woukdl be no more media coverage of the issues until it is resolved internally. We were to reconvene in his office the following day, Wednesday, 29th August, 2023.
"Surprisingly, we woke up to read Wale Adedayo's interview wherein he cast aspersions on all of us, denying that he was part of the meeting the previous day and didnt prostrate to beg the governor.
"At the meeting in the office of the SSG, 19 of us, including Wale, were present. When he was asked why he went ahead to grant another interview, contrary to our resolution the previous day, he had no cogent reason.
"He was asked to give an ssurance that there would be no more media interviews on the issue until the issues were resolved. He told us that he could not give that assurance until after his meeting with a group of people.
"At that point, it became clear to us all that Wale was not acting alone but in concert with some external forces. All pleas by all of us to make him back down fell on deaf ears".
"Wale is definitely acting a script and trying to pull down other people. He does not need to do this. We beseech Him to desist from this line of action, do a soul search and come out clean.
"It is most inhuman to attempt to destroy those who stuck out their neck, trying to protect you when the chips were down. There is always a pay back day".
On the recent Supreme Court judgment, Emilola-Gazal said that except the Supreme Court judgment is tinkered with, as much as 16 local governments may find it difficult to pay salaries of their staff.
He said "with the Supreme Court judgment, it will be discovered that 16 local governments can't pay the salaries of their staff, what comes from the FG allocation is not sufficient to pay the first line charges such as the salaries of the primary school teachers, that of the royal fathers and then the staff of the local government.
"That is the truth and until there is augmentation from the state government, these local government won't be able to pay, this judgment will bring this fore. For instance and in most cases in Ijebu-Ode Local Government, when we put the monthly revenue coming from the federation side by side, we are always having a deficit of between N60m and N40m. Ijebu-Ode, Abeokuta South, Abeokuta North , Odeda are perpetually in debt, that is the truth.
"At the end of the day, the Supreme Court judgment may have to be fine tuned because many of these local governments won't be able to pay salaries and these we shall see in coming days''.
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