Mr Wale Adedayo, the suspended Chairman of the Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State has said that he remains unshaken and has no regrets for demanding that Gov Dapo Abiodun allow the local governments in the state to have access to federal allocations meant to develop the grassroots.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abeokuta shortly after his release from the custody of the Department of State Security Services where he spent three days, the suspended chairman said that he was detained on the heels of the petition sent against Gov Abiodun to the security agency wherein he was alleged to have been making inciting comments that could jeopardize public peace.
It will be recalled that Adedayo was suspended last Thursday by seven councillors in his local government for three months over allegations of maladministration and financial mismanagement.
He, however, said that he had told the DSS that there was never a time he made any inciting comments other than the letter written to the former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba where he accused Gov Abiodun of not funding the local governments in the state for two years.
Adedayo said he had equally told the DSS that he would never write a retraction of his statement on the allegation of zero allocation to the local governments in the state, but he apologized to the governor if he felt that the statement had embarrassed him saying that he only wanted the best for the people at the grassroots.
He disclosed further that other chairmen in the state had inputs into the letter written to Chief Osoba on the zero allocation to the local governments, saying that he only edited it and put his name but was surprised that his colleagues could back down from the struggle.
“They claimed there is a letter from the governor, Dapo Abiodun that I was making inciting comments against the state government but I told them that there was nothing like that or who did they say I have incited?
“That I was planning to protest but I said I don’t know anything about that and I told them that I have only done what my conscience said that I should and this I did with my other colleagues Chairmen despite the fact that they all ran back. My conscience is very clear in the letter I wrote to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the former governor of the state and a national leader of our party, APC,” he said.
“Some of the chairmen had inputs into the letter, I only did the editing of the letter, put my name there and then sent it and what is written in the letter affect all the council chairmen, so it is not about getting their backing or not.
“What the Governor wanted me to do was to do a retraction of what the letter contained but I said that I won’t do that. The DSS later said the governor said that I have embarrassed him and I said if the governor felt that I have embarrassed him, I am sorry but the truth is that the facts are there for whoever cares to see.
“I am not fighting with Gov Abiodun, he is my friend, he’s my egbon, my senior brother but my own take is if the local governments are doing well, its all to the credit of Mr Governor, he’s the one people will be talking about and I gave them the example of the government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel between 2003 to 2011.
“If you go to the 236 wards in the state you will see the footprints of this government at the grassroots, the people will be saying Gbenga Daniel did this, he did that but it was the local government chairmen that did all of these projects yet people till today will be shouting the name of Gbenga Daniel. And all of these were made possible because the governor allowed the local governments to have access to their federal allocations.
“So, I said same thing will be happening if Gov Abiodun allows the local governments to have access to their funds. And then they came up with the issue of being sponsored, I am 57 and I know what is good for the people, no one is sponsoring me and they said that I should apologise and do a retraction but I said no.
“I said if the governor said that he was embarrassed I am sorry but I equally added that if the governor had funded the local governments all would have been to his credit.”
The suspended council chairman also said that he would soon challenge what he called his illegal suspension in court saying that all the allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers were tissues of lies and mere fabrications
Recall that the suspended chairman had written a letter to a former governor in the state, Chief Olusegun, Osoba, alleging that the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, had hijacked public funds, while also forwarding a petition to the anti-graft agencies over the same allegations.
The Joint Account and Allocation Committee (JAAC) in the state saddled with the responsibility of managing the local government federal allocations has however dismissed the allegation, affirming that every fund approved by the Committee passed through the various Local Councils.
