The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has been following with keen interest the process leading to the October governorship election in Ondo State.
We commend the decorum shown so far by all the governorship candidates and we urge all of them to continue to keep the peace in the interest of the Ondo people which they are seeking to serve even as we challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to live above board and be as unbiased and professionally competent in line with constitutional provisions.
We must however single out the incumbent governor, Dr. Segun Mimiko for remaining calm in the face of unwarranted provocation and for creating a level-playing field for all the candidates to mobilise their supporters. Dr. Mimiko is indeed an icon of democracy whose attitudes to electioneering should be emulated by other incumbent governors.
We also commend the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Chief OluwaRotimi Akeredolu [SAN] for making the election an issue-based campaign.
However, we at HURIWA believes that the good people of Ondo State deserve to be governed by an incorruptible person just as the good people of Ondo State fully deserve to be served by a good Nigerian that is someone with no records of financial impropriety because he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
We say this because corruption remains the biggest challenge against the development of this country and we recognize the sacred task placed on Government by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in our political objective in chapter two that it is thelegal duty of Government to abolish all corrupt practices.
In HURIWA we regret to say that our political leaders continue to pay lip service to the fight against corruption and the hard reality for now is that once a corrupt person is elected into office of Governor of a state in Nigeria is difficult to remove him/her from Office because of the constitutional impediment that section 308 of the Constitution constitutes because this provison confers immunity on certain elected officials including Governors/Deputy Governors, President and his Deputy from all litigations oncein office and this makes it difficult to tackle such officials while they are in power.
We at HURIWA are of the view that the task of ensuring that a corrupt person does not win elective posts rests squarely with the people just as we resolutely affirm that it is also our duty as members of civil society to propel the electorate to make the right choice.
In view of the above, we are concerned at the widespread allegation which came to our notice only recently at one of our meetings as we were considering him for one of our highest awards that the Action Congress of Nigeria’s governorship candidate, Chief Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN has not adequately responded to the allegations making the rounds that he engaged in some alleged fraudulent practices when he was the President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
In order to help the people of Ondo state to make the right choice, HURIWA demands that Chief Akeredolu responds to the following allegations:
1. That in 2009, as President of the NBA, Chief Akeredolu allegedly awarded and approved contract for the printing of the Bar Perspective and Voice of the Bar to his company named AKT Venture Limited with RC No 104097 which said company had as her subscribers to the Memorandum and Articles of Association and Directors.
(a) Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (Himself)
(b) Betty Akeredolu( His Wife)
(c) Oluwole A. Akeredolu (His son)
(d) Kolawole O. Akeredolu (His brother)
That he allegedly approved a cheque of N3.3 million and paid into the said company’s account in two instalments.
And that the money so approved was allegedly not provided for in the budget.
2. That Chief Akeredolu allegedly violated the Constitution of the NBA by spending association’s fund in contravention of the budget.
3. That the printing job which Chief Akeredolu allegedly awarded to his company would have been done for the association free of charge by Odade Publishers Limited.
4. That instead of issuing cheque in the name of the company as it was the practice, that Chief Akeredolu as NBA president allegedly gave instruction that the cheque be raised in the name of a staff of the association.
5. That there was no competitive bids for the award of the contract for the printing of the said Bar Perspective. The contract was simply aallegedly awarded to the said company wholly owned by the Akeredolu’s family.
6. That Akeredolu allegedly received the sum of N5million on behalf of the association from the Government of Akwa Ibom state but neglected to hand same over to the association.
7. That Akeredolu also allegedly received on behalf of the association, the sum of N3million from the Niger state Government in Minna but also allegedly neglected to turn it over to the association.
8. That based on all these allegations, some aggrieved national officers of the association wrote a petition demanding for an explanation from Akeredolu.
9. And that it took the alleged intervention of some leaders of the Bar including past presidents of the association to save Akeredolu from removal from office.
We at HURIWA are of the view that these allegations are very weighty and deserve the response of the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria who as we know is a democrat that understands the tenets of transparency and accountability.
Clearing the air on the issues we believe will definitely afford the people of Ondo State to make the right judgment and for pro-democracy groups like ours to be convinced beyond the shadow of doubt that these allegations are not what they seem to represent.
We therefore call on Chief Akeredolu to respond to the allegations raised herein in the interest of the people he is seeking to govern.
–
+Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator.
