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Tunji-Ojo: Group demands suspension, investigation of minister over N585m scandal
The South West Integrity Group called on President Bola Tinubu on Monday to suspend Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo over his alleged involvement in the recent scandal over contract awards at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The group, in a statement signed by President Ogunleye Adebowale and Secretary Adeleye Adetutu and made available to journalists in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, accused the minister of directly violating the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution.
“As an anti-corruption body, we have decided to join you in the very important crusade to expose and rid our nation of the greedy corrupt political class who only plan how to loot our commonwealth and not to join you to actualize your renewed hope agenda.
“It is against this premise that we have been forced to present this petition to you to intimate to you the reckless looting of our commonwealth by one of your ministers, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Honourable Minister of Interior. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s integrity has certainly been compromised.
“We have come to the inevitable conclusion that corruption is taking a toll on your administration with the shameful conduct of Honourable Olubunmi Tunji Ojo on his alleged forgery of the NYSC certificate, which is still under litigation in a competent court of law, and his recent involvement in the N585 million contracts he secured from the suspended Minister of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, with his company, First Planets Project Limited, in which he and his wife have an interest.”
The group explained that “it is worth noting that the company, which was registered on March 3, 2009, with registration number 804833, has Honourable Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, and his wife, Abimbola Tunji-Ojo, listed as directors, with one Gbadamosi Clement as the Company Secretary.
“Like NYSC, the CAC certificate, up until now it is still on the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission that Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and his wife are both directors in the said company, but he has been moving from one media house to another with some documents that he has since resigned from the directorship of the company.
“We are still expecting EFCC and DSS to tell us the direct beneficiaries of the annual income of the company.
“We don’t need a lawyer before we know that Mr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s actions are a direct violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which you swore to defend, and the Code of Conduct Law prohibits public officers from engaging in conflicts of interest and participating in any business except farming.”
The group also urged the minister to explain to Nigerians how, as a member of the Federal Executive Council, he would not have had a direct effect on contract awards for his company.
“Mr. President, unless the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and his company publish the details of the due process certification documents, the scope of the job, the expert modules used, and importantly, the particulars of the 11 million Nigerian households they claimed to have been verified within 25 working days, we would believe the APC-led federal government only shared the money meant for the poor within themselves.
“Mr. President, Dr. Betta Edu, Hon. Olubumi Tunji-Ojo, and some other influential politicians in the villa planned the mass looting of the Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Treasury from the beginning.
“Sir, if you think deeply about those who lobbied you to give the woman a portfolio of humanitarian and poverty alleviation, you will know the reason Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo planted his former Legislative Aide, Thalis Apalowo, as the National Coordinator for Grants for Vulnerable Groups, as a frontier for himself.”
Furthermore, the group urged the president to convene a panel to investigate why the former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Daniel Pondei, led a walkout on the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, which was chaired by Tunji-Ojo from 2019 to 2023.
“Mr. Daniel Pondei, the then acting Managing Director of NNDC, accused the Chairman of the NNDC Committee in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tunji-Ojo, of massive corruption in NNDC.
“He openly asked Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo to recuse himself from the investigation panel on July 16, 2020, because he was part of the corruption.
“This ugly and shameful incident caused the then NNDC management team, the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC, chaired by Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to plan the sudden collapse of the then acting Managing Director of NNDC during the ongoing House Committee public hearing of NNDC on July 20, 2020.
“Mr President should please ask Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the then speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo, and the then acting Managing Director of NNDC, Mr. Daniel Pondei, why the probe panel seized to function from that day and how the whole probe was killed and burned after Daniel Pondei was rushed and discharged from the National Assembly Clinic, Abuja.
“We hereby also request that you investigate the number of contracts Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo used the same New Planet Project Limited to take from NDDC throughout his four years in the National Assembly.”
