Clear your name or quit guber race, group tells Akeredolu

Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN)

CIVIL society group, Democratic Value Initiative (DVI), has challenged the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN), in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, to respond to the allegations that he misappropriated the funds of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) during his two-year tenure as the President of the body.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria is further accused of official recklessness during his reign in NBA. The social campaign group wants him to clear himself of the allegations or withdraw from the race immediately, to save his name.

Making the call in a statement issued on Friday and signed by its President, Godwin Shari, the DVI said the allegations made against the ACN gubernatorial candidate were too weighty to be ignored, especially, when grounds of the allegations are made available for everyone to see.

The ACN candidate was fingered in fraudulent matters and gross abuse of office by an Abuja-based group, Good Governance Monitor (GGM), which cited instances of fraudulent manifestations against Akeredolu as the President of the NBA, declaring him unfit to occupy the exalted office of the governor.

Relying on a letter of complaint written to the ACN gubernatorial candidate by his colleagues, accusing him of diverting NBA contract to his personal company, AKT Ventures Limited, and converting to personal use, the sum of N3 million from the Niger State government, the group said there were ample reasons to doubt the capability of the lawyer  to  handle  the finances of a state.

The group had quoted a document dated September 4, 2009, written to Akeredolu by fellow stakeholders and national officers of the NBA who said they were worried and disturbed by the ACN candidate’s “fraudulent manifestations and continuous violation of the constitution of the Nigeria Bar Association.”

The stakeholders had confronted the politician with details of findings that Akeredolu awarded and approved contract for the printing   of   the   ‘Bar Perspective’ and ‘Voice of the Bar’ to a company named AKT Ventures Limited with RC No 104097.

They further stated that the company had the following people as subscribers to            the Memorandum and Articles of Association and Directors: Oluwarotimi O Akeredolu; Betty C. Akeredolu (Mrs); Oluwole A. Akeredolu and Kolawole O. Akeredolu.

According to the fellow lawyers, Akeredolu and other subscribers approved and signed a cheque for the total sum of Three Million, Three Hundred and Twenty Thousand               Naira (N3,320,000.00) and paid it into the said accounts in two installments.

“This said amount is not provided for in the INEC-approved budgetary allocation for the year, having approved the sum of N1m instead of the sum of N920, 000 (Nine Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira) provided for publication in the budgetary allocation for the year.”

Referring to a memo to the then NBA president by the publicity secretary, Abdulrasheed Oladimeji Murtala Esq, dated July 29, 2009, the stakeholders alleged that Akeredolu also on the same day approved the release of N2 million to himself.

According to the document communicated to Akeredolu, “It is crystal clear that the General-Secretary, NBA, Mr. Ibrahim Mark, raised objections as regard your approval of the same with valid stated/written reasons in the same memo. But instead, you the president, in connivance with the Treasurer, Mrs. Tess Moriis-Okeke who prepared this budget and who knew this money was not budgeted for, signed the