Ogun Assembly probes property corporation’s N45m fraud

The Ogun State House of Assembly has commenced a probe into the N45 million allegedly used to obtain title documents for a non-existent Star Hotel, Ikeja, by the immediate past managing director of Ogun Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC).

The assembly is also probing 25 audit infractions allegedly committed between 2015 and 2019, during the second term of the immediate past governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

The immediate past MD of OPIC, Barr. Jide Odusolu, last Monday, appeared before the House Committee on Public Accounts and Anti-corruption.

The Musefiu Lamidi-led committee grilled Odusolu for about six hours on the finances of the OPIC under his watch, but a statement from the assembly less than 24 hours after his appearance hinted that “the committee was not satisfied with his responses.”

Odusolu was therefore asked to reappear before the committee on November 9, for further questioning.

According to the committee, “The corporation merged the cost of lands and buildings which contravenes the provisions of the accounting standard, while the five Star Hotel, Ikeja, under it did not have any physical existence but only on paper and the sum of N45,025,064 was spent to obtain title documents on the landed property, just as the premium of non-current assets for 2015- 2016 was not paid as and when due.”

It further disclosed that the rental income of OPIC Plaza, Ikeja was not made available for examination during the 2016 audit exercise, with no traceable records of interactions between the Agbara Estate and the billing section of the corporation on the reconciliation of rent income generated.

Responding, Odusolu denied the allegations of financial impropriety and misappropriation at the OPIC during the tenure of Amosun, saying all the transactions made during his six-year tenure followed due process.

He noted that the corporation generated an ‘unprecedented’ revenue of N18.7 billion for the state within the period under review.

He said, “Government must see and allow OPIC to operate with flexibility as a business. If you want to force us to do things as they did in the past, you will go back to the old ways. When I was here, we had targets, every month, everybody had targets

“When you take a business and try and funnel it into the details of the civil service, you will always have conflicts.

“Within a six-year period, we turned around OPIC and generated over N18.7 billion in revenue and the total expenditure we made was about N12.3 billion.”