Ondo AD Guber Candidate, Olusola Oke In N155 million NDDC Fraud

The Ondo State gubernatorial candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Mr. Olusola Oke, has been accused of fleecing the people of the state of a sum of N155million via a fictitious project and therefore is not qualified to be governor of the state.

The accusation was made by a group, Coalition for Transparency, in a petition seeking Mr. Oke’s investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Inspector-General of Police. Signed by Bamidele Akindele, the group’s Protem Secretary, the group alleged that the governorship candidate shortchanged the people of Ondo State and the Federal Government by creating a non-existent community, which he called Uboeparito Community, and another case of forgery.

The group maintained that if Mr. Oke is not investigated and prosecuted, he may be elected governor to continue fleecing the state.

The group noted that Mr. Oke was unable to return as the Ondo State representative on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), when he could not scale the hurdle of security clearance by the Directorate of State Security (DSS) in 2005.

His disqualification from the NDDC Board, said the group, was recommended by a security report issued by the Directorate of State Security Service on 31 January, 2005.

The report put Mr. Oke’s name at the top of the four-person list of those the DSS refrained from clearing “on the basis of negative security traces in the Service records”.

The others were Oke Mike Nwaebuna, Frederick Ebegue Amadasun and Emmanuel Jones Uzoka.

Titled “Re- Request For Security Clearance In Respect of Niger Delta Development Commission,” the report was addressed to the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters and signed by one Mr. Bayo Adeyemo on behalf of the DSS Director-General.

Based on the report, Campaign for Transparency maintained that Mr. Oke is ineligible to be governor of Ondo State.

“In our view, that report still subsists till today with regards to the eligibility of Olusola Oke to hold public office and it remains valid because it has neither been challenged by him nor set aside by a competent court,” said the group.

It argued that if Mr. Oke was unqualified to be returned to the NDDC Board, having breached public trust back then, he cannot be qualified to be governor of the state.

“Need we say that Oke, without much ado, needs to tell the good people of Ondo State and indeed all Nigerians after these years, the exact location of Uboeripato Community even without being invited or arrested, so he could regain the confidence of the people which he has lost based on this DSS report?” asked the group.