Bidemi Rufai didn’t bring investor to Ogun State, says govt

Ogun State government has debunked a report by an online news medium that the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, was paying $50,000 to his former aide, Bidemi Rufai, each time he introduced people to him.

A statement by Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Governor, Kunle Somorin, yesterday, noted that Rufai, who was appointed by the governor as his Senior Special Assistant on Housing, never had any close relationship with the governor before his appointment.

According to Somorin, Rufai, like other aides of the governor, was recommended from his ward for the appointment, and not because of any special favour he offered to the governor during his gubernatorial campaigns in 2019.

The statement further faulted and denied the claims in the report that Rufai was being paid $2,000 as his salary, which according to it, is not only “outrageous but baseless.”

Somorin added that records in the state never showed that Rufai, while serving in the state, brought a single investor or facilitated any investment from America, wondering how the former political aide would then be paid $50,000 for a deal that never took place.

He said that salaries and wages of political office holders was fixed by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, adding that no member of the government is permitted to any other allowances not known to law.

“Rufai was appointed as a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Housing, and was nominated for appointment barely three months before he was arrested.

“He had not resumed formerly and had no official office to transact business.

“He wasn’t part of the Ogun State economic management team and had got no input into the state government activities.

“His appointment was based on his activities in his ward. He didn’t sit in the State Executive Council meetings and couldn’t have had inputs in policies of the state government.

“The governor had no deal with Rufai on any transaction. He brought not a single one. They can check with the American embassy,” the statement added.

The CPS noted further that Abiodun, being a law-abiding person and respecter of the rule of law, immediately suspended Rufai after his arrest for fraud in the U.S. and later terminated his appointment even before his conviction for the crime by the U.S. court.

He stated that Nigeria is currently in the political season, which is an auspicious time for unscrupulous politicians to attack or sponsor attacks against the incumbent, hence, timing of the concocted and untrue news.

He said that the political enemies of the governor, who are perhaps not happy with his rising profile, particularly in terms of the huge foreign investment drive and infrastructural development in Ogun State, might want to play up the issue of Rufai to tarnish his image.

Somorin, who urged the people of the state to disregard the report as a mere “attention seeking” gambit, said that Abiodun would not rather be perturbed by the report, but remain focused on his mission to position Ogun as number one investors’ preferred destination in the country.

He added that the governor would not be distracted by the antics of political traducers within and outside the state.