From Dotun Omisakin, Lagos
Ganiyu Oyebanjo, the Special Adviser on Boundary Matters to the Kosofe Local Government chairman, Moyosore Ogunlewe, has accused his boss of orchestrating his illegal arrest and detention for 15 days as a retaliation for exposing alleged financial misappropriation and corruption within the council.
Oyebanjo said he is in possession of some documents revealing the chairman’s alleged corrupt practices and had filed petitions to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the matter.
However, he said the council boss instigated his arrest by the Police in order to silence him.
Briefing newsmen, Oyebanjo narrated how he was arrested in his home on March 11, 2025, by officers of the Zone II Police Command, allegedly on the orders of Ogunlewe.
He said he was charged with unlawfully breaking into the office of the chairman to steal classified documents, an allegation he denied.
Oyebanjo said the documents he had against Ogunlewe reveal a pattern of corruption and forgery.
“The documents I have against him are extracts and payment vouchers. The extracts are approvals and resolutions of the executive committee at the local government level for contracts, procurement, or projects.
“As a member of the executive committee, I can attest that for any project, contract, or procurement, there must be a resolution from the committee, which we all must agree on before it can be carried out. However, when I examined the extracts, I discovered that there was never a time when any contract, project, or procurement was mentioned in our executive committee meetings. This raised serious suspicions about the chairman’s activities.
“It was later I discovered that after our meetings, the chairman, in connivance with the council secretary, Fatai Gbadebo, would write new minutes to accommodate their corrupt plans and create fake extracts.
“These fake documents were then used to justify payments for projects that were never approved by the executive committee,” Oyebanjo said.
He vowed to drag the council chairman to court over the “illegal arrest.”
“My arrest and detention were a clear attempt to silence me and prevent me from exposing the chairman’s corrupt activities,” he noted.
He called on the Inspector General of Police and the state commissioner of Police to hold the LG chairman responsible if anything happens to him or any member of his family.
When contacted, the chairman denied the allegations of corruption and financial misappropriation, describing them as politically motivated ahead of the forthcoming council election in the state.
He said the aide was arrested in connection with alleged theft of documents, insisting that the security agents should be allowed to do their job.
“He is trying to cover up; it is not because of the petition he wrote to the EFCC and ICPC that got him arrested, as he is circulating.
“It is not because he exposed anything that led to his arrest. The issue he raised will be investigated by the authorities in charge of the petition. Let them do their investigation, but you don’t want us to talk about the documents you stole,” he said.
