The immediate past Chairmen of local government in Ogun State have distanced themselves from recent claim by the dismissed Chairman of Ijebu-East local government, Wale Adedayo, saying Adedayo acted alone.

Adedayo, in a recent interview, alleged that all the chairmen, except three, voted in favour of the letter sent to the former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, alleging Governor Dapo Abiodun of withholding local government funds.

The former Chairman, currently being prosecuted, alleged in the recent interview that he was saddled with the mandate to write the letter, as a journalist, after which the 17 Chairmen voted in favour of the contents at a meeting held in Abeokuta South Local Government.

But addressing a press conference on Monday at the Henry Townsend House, Iwe Iroyin, Abeokuta, the chairmen maintained that Adebayo acted alone with the support of some external influence.

Babatunde Emilola-Gazal, the former Chairman of the Ijebu Ode local government who led the former Chairmen insisted that there was no meeting where Adedayo was instructed by anyone to write a letter to Chief Osoba, not to talk about sending the same letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Emilola-Gazal said the Abeokuta South meeting was to query Adedayo on why he wrote the letter without the approval of other colleagues and not to vote either in favour or against the content of the said letter.

“Members expressed shock that he wrote such a letter without the consent of the body. However, since he said he had sent it to Chief Osoba, he was told that the letter should not go beyond that. 

“We were invited, through me, to a meeting with the state government, later in the afternoon of the same day. I called an emergency meeting of ALGON for Ake, Abeokuta South Local Government by 11.00am to discuss the burning issue before meeting the state government team.

“Once again, I asked Wale why he took that action, especially going to the press, when he had been told to desist from further spread of the letter. He told us that it was a senior journalist who spread it and not him.

“We also asked him why he wrote the EFCC. He said when Chief Osoba did not respond, he was advised to write the EFCC.

“I told him that there are allegations that he is being sponsored and that I have warned him against any confrontation with the governor for the past 6 months. He said I had prevented him for one year, not 6 months, from doing what he wished to do.

“We told him outrightly that his actions were wrong. Nonetheless, I suggested that we rally round him. There were few dissenting voices who felt he should be left to face the consequences alone.

“The meeting at Ake was to salvage the situation and not leave him alone in that period of trouble, it was not to ratify what he wrote. There was never a meeting where he was asked to write anything. Wale acted alone.

“The truth is that Wale acted alone and all efforts to make him allow for internal resolution of the crisis failed because he made it clear that he was acting in concert with external forces and wouldn't do anything until he had a meeting with them,” He said.

Emilola-Gazal said further, “We had an understanding with the Secretary to the State Government that, henceforth, there would be no more media coverage of the issues until it is resolved internally. We were to reconvene in his office the following day, Wednesday, 29th August, 2023.

“Surprisingly, we woke up to read Wale Adedayo's interview wherein he cast aspersions on all of us, denying that he was part of the meeting the previous day and didn’t prostrate to beg the governor.”

While responding to the allegation, Adedayo insisted that Emiola-Gazal was the one who initiated the writing of the letter, adding that he has always been afraid of the authority.

“Yes, Gazal called me. But I was being respectful as he tried putting words in my mouth. He claimed it was former Chairman of Remo North Local Government, Ogbeni Odunsi, who called me to say a few chairmen had met and there was need to write a letter to Chief Osoba. This is certainly not true. It was Gazal, who called, not Odunsi.

“He was the one who called to say that five chairmen had met and decided on a letter that should go to Osoba. He now added that, they want me to fine tune it, as the only journalist among them.

“I did justice to what he said as I also added mine. Yes, others, who apparently were not involved got scared when the letter became public. It was the reason for the Abeokuta South Local Government secretariat meeting.

“The meeting at Abeokuta South Local Government was dramatic. He did not fully explain what happened. Maybe it was the role Odunsi played in exposing the mole among us, which made him want to tie the letter to the Remo North man.

“When we were taking a final decision on the letter, Odunsi insisted that we take a simple oath which will ensure that our discussions are not leaked to Mr. Governor. He sought the permission of all to get his driver to bring small sand from the road in front of the local government secretariat. The sand was thus packaged by the driver, which he poured into a bottle of table water.

“Each of us was to take a sip to the effect that, henceforth, whoever reveal details of our discussions outside the group would be dealt with by Ogun Lakaaye within three days.

“We could not take the oath, because the former Chairman of Ijebu North-East Local Government, Badejo, got up to confess that he has been sending recordings of our discussions to Mr. Governor. Everyone was shocked. And that was the end of the attempt to take the oath,” he concluded.