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The
Contracts/Consultancy Review Committee (CCRC) set up by the Ekiti State
government has recommended the ousted governor, Segun Oni, for criminal
prosecution by anti-graft agencies.

The committee said
it uncovered that over N5.4 billion was embezzled under his watch
through the award of various contracts during his three-and-half-year
tenure.

In a draft white
paper on the report of the panel released to the media yesterday, Mr Oni
was allegedly discovered to have defrauded the state in 11 contracts
awarded by him while he was governor.

The contracts, as
contained in the paper include: Dualisation of Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki Road,
Igede-Eyio-Iworoko Road, cross-boundary roads, construction of five new
state secretariat buildings, new House of Assembly complex, cassava
revolution scheme and purchase of 600 cows from South Africa for Ikun
Dairy Farm.

The panel also
discovered fraud in the award of contracts for the Ado-Ekiti solar
powered street lights, boundary roads with neighbouring states, designs
of most roads and housing projects.

Responding to the
allegation, the Media aide to the former governor, Wale Ojo-Lanre, said
it is painful that Ekiti State is obviously in the hands of people with
little knowledge about governance.

“If not, they won’t
be making allegations of fraud against a government that they took over
from seven months ago. More so that the government it took them seven
months to find their concocted evidence of fraud against was terminated
abruptly with no opportunity for any official of the government to tidy
up their records,” he said.

Mr Oni was also
alleged to have defrauded Ekiti people through the Government House
water reservoir project, the Deputy Governor’s Office project via
inflation of contracts, among others.

Make him pay

The panel led by its
chairman, Eben Alade recommended that the Kayode Fayemi-led
administration must use all legal means to compel Mr Oni to refund a
total sum of N5,419, 506, 264.55 to the coffers of the state government.

Sequel to this, the panel had recommended that government should
involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission
(ICPC) and the courts of law to recover all outstanding monies in the
hands of Mr Oni.