Members of the Coalition of Ogun State Students and Youths (COSSY), have called on Governor Dapo Abiodun to respond to allegations that he had criminal records being concealed in the United States of America.

The group said it had on Friday submitted a letter to Abiodun and copies of the same letters available to several groups, eminent indigenes of Ogun State and legal luminaries in Nigeria. 

According to the youths, their action is to provoke a national conversation around “the recently exposed allegations of criminal indictments against the Executive Governor of Ogun State.”

At a press conference addressed in Abeokuta, the convener of COSSY, Comrade Oladimeji Usman, said he had reliable information that at 2:46pm on July 12, 1986, at the American Express Travellers Office located at 32, Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Florida, Officer G. Clayton of the CGPD arrested one Shawn Michael Davis (an African American male with DOB June 22, 1959) for Forgery, uttering a forged Travellers Cheque, grand theft and theft of a credit card belonging to Mr. John A. Moruay.

“That at 8:20pm on November 6, 1986, Officers R. Ubieta and R. Stewart of the MDPD, assisted by US secret service agent, S.A, Tim Cristiine, arrested one Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun (a male Security guard, an African of Nigerian origin with DOB May 29, 1960) at 85ST, SW 107AVE (Horizons East) for forgery, uttering forged instrument and resisting arrest with violence.

“That while being processed at the Metropolitan Dade police depariment (MDPD), Miami, Florida, for detention, the fingerprint of the suspect, Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, was run on the Us criminal database and it was discovered that the suspect is same person as the Michael Shawn Davis (in (1) above - who then was still facing trial, and released on bail, at Coral Gables).”

Usman said the revelation was a pointer that AbIodun, “used a pseudonym, Shawn Michael Davis (and a fake DOB June 22, 1959) to conceal his criminal identity. A criminal indictment, that still subsists in the Miami Dade County, Florida, criminal record to this day, was accordingly upheld for Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun.”

He spoke further that on August 18, 2015 at exactly 3:18 pm, the then Ogun East Senatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Abiodun, “applied for the redaction of his criminal records in Miami Dade, Florida, USA.”

“It was thus established that the Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, (DOB May 29, 1960, Alias Shawn Michael Davis) is the same as Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, the incumbent Governor of Ogun State.

 

“That in a bid to conceal his criminal past and indictment, Prince Dapo Abiodun applied for that redaction in 2015.”

 

The Ogun students said they are concerned that Abiodun knowingly made the concealment to evade any possible exposure that would have questioned his eligibility to participate in future elections and any fallout from the 2015 Ogun East Senatorial elections.

They alleged that Abiodun, despite being aware that he was/is not qualified to contest any elective position according to extant provisions in the Nigerian Constitution, “went ahead to procure a governorship form in 2018, contested and we voted for him, thus misleading over 240,000 Ogun State voters who are mostly youths.”

In their demands, the COSSY members requested Abiodun to provide unequivocal clarifications within the next 14 days. 

“Ignoring this noble request will leave us with no other choice but to take appropriate lawful means that will compel an action, expected of a twenty-first-century public office holder, from him.

While demanding that Gov Abiodun uphold the dignity of Ogun people and tow the honourable path, they charged “the Ogun State House of Assembly to immediately commence investigation of this matter with a view to invoking relevant sections of the constitution to address this embarrassing scenario.”

The youths also declared open, “a national conversation on the appropriateness, or otherwise, of the continuous hold of Prince Dapo Abiodun to the office of the Governor of Ogun State amidst this glaring breach of trust and criminal concealment.”

In a swift reaction, the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Communications, Remmy Hazzan described the allegations as untrue.

Hazzan said the government was aware that petitions have been forwarded to the Police and the Department of State Security Service on the allegations against the governor.

He said the security agencies should be allowed to investigate the allegations and come out with their findings.

Hazzan said "We are taken aback by such petition because it came from one non governmental organisation and it was addressed to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of Department of State Security Service. I'm aware of those two quarters which the petition was forwarded to and there were quite of weighty allocations in there.

"Our first reaction is that this is not true. To that extent, we would also leave the agencies that have been so petitioned to do their investigative work. Besides, the immunity clause in section 308 does not foreclose investigation. So, those agencies are well within their statutory obligations to investigate. 

"At that point it would be our word against their own. But we can't continue to a have back and forth, saying 'it is true, it is not true.'

"We are in the season and a lot of things will keep unfolding. Politics itself is a concentric cycle of constant conspiracy. The conspiracy goes on, it never stops. Everyone, anyone who is in this game must understand what the time we are in is all about.  

"As a government we have our own counter measures if and when they come out."

On ultimatum given, Hazzan said such should rather go to the agencies that have the capacity to probe the allegations rather than the governor.