Utomi, Amosun trade words over contract violation, amid calls for jets’ probe

•Ogun PDP asks FG to set up panel of enquiry
•Obasanjo blames Nigeria’s underdevelopment on selfish leaders

There was a new twist to the controversial seizure of Nigeria’s presidential jets in France yesterday as Professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, blamed former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun for the confiscation.

On his X page, Utomi narrated his ordeal paying back loans worth millions of naira after Amosun allegedly cancelled his contract with the Ogun government.

Utomi was reacting to Amosun’s admission that a contract he (Amosun) cancelled while at the helm of affairs led to the seizure.

Amosun had explained how he cancelled the contract with a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, in 2016 after his administration discovered that the firm’s claims were false.

But Utomi said: “The Chinese were not the only victims. One prominent Ogun indigene allegedly committed suicide. I, too, was a victim.”

The don explained how he had leased OPIC land in Lagos in an agreement under former Governor Gbenga Daniel, but Amosun stopped the contract when he succeeded Daniel.

Utomi narrated how he met several times with Amosun about the issue, and the former governor promised to resolve it but never did. He said he also sought the intervention of Bola Tinubu, who was yet to be president then, and Chief Bisi Akande, but to no avail.

Expressing his disappointment, Utomi said: “I lost my weary SA partners who owned a successful regional chain across Southern Africa and Asia. I licked my wounds and slaved to pay off the loans. The Chinese had better leverage. They took it, and all are shamed.”

But reacting in a statement to Utomi’s post, Amosun said the reason Utomi posted the remarks about him on X was because he (Amosun) refused to feed his entitlement mentality or honour indecent influence peddling.

Amosun said before he came into office, the Ogun State House of Assembly had passed a persona non grata on Utomi and put its resolution in the state’s black book.

He said he was curious when he became governor and called Utomi to ask about the issue. “This was entirely at my discretion and not because he reached out to me. But I reckoned that as one with some degree of name recognition, that should not be, and I wanted to know what happened.”

Amosun said Utomi told him “among other things, that there was an ongoing construction in an Ogun State property that had become controversial. I immediately raised a team for verification and to know what to do. The team I sent said the land was inappropriate because the construction was being done in the car park of the Ogun property on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Road in Lagos State. My team then suggested somewhere else.

“But he didn’t want another place because, according to him, the place in question gave more visibility. After our in-house assessment, my team concluded he could not have spent more than N35 million or at most N50 million on the construction as of then. At that point, I decided to visit myself.”

According to the former governor, it was discovered that the “so-called work done was hurriedly executed in the wake of the realisation that another political party had won the governorship election and would take over the reins of leadership in the state.

“It was also obvious that what was being attempted was a move at ambushing the state government under my watch and presenting us with a fait accompli, a situation that would have generated controversy about the demolition of an ongoing project.”

He said: “Just so that his investment in the state would not go to waste, I committed to refunding N100 million against his claim of N200 million. He pressured me ceaselessly to pay him N200 million, but I did not yield.

“As part of his determination to sway me, he deployed his Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL) through the instrumentality of an award. At first, it all looked curious that I’d just been in office for about two years, and here I was being given an award, so I rejected it.

“But he insisted that I honour his CVL Solution Conference Series with my presence, which I did, and I was given a plague for participating. However, I did not change my position on the refund of N100 million as against his N200 million claim.”

Amosun added: “A few years later, he complained to some people with the sole intent to malign me. When I heard about it, I called to tell him off because his problem was purely an entitlement mentality. He even boasted, asking me: ‘Do you know who I am?’ Imagine! But I ignored him because I immediately saw through his true colour. In my book, it’s one law for everyone, no matter who you are.

“I challenge everyone, including journalists, to let us meet at the construction site and see the N200 million investment he claimed to have made there. Let them also ask what benefit the project would have had on Ogun State.

“Nobody can talk me down to look good. I served Ogun State passionately with all my strength, and I did with my shoulders high. I stand by every decision I took, whether or not people like Pat Utomi were in agreement with me.

“Utomi knows his case did not even have any legs to stand on. He is not different from Zhongfu International Investment FXE. He knows he cannot lay claims to any lawful damage done to his investment. All he has tried to do is a ‘me too’, which is very disgraceful.”

MEANWHILE, the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged the Federal Government to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the matter and ensure that whoever is found culpable for the national embarrassment between Amosun and incumbent governor, Dapo Abiodun, is brought to book.

The party, however, said that if the Federal Government finds out that the Chinese firm involved in the issue played a hanky-panky game, as Abiodun and Amosun claimed, it should not hesitate to sue the Chinese government and the firm involved.

Also, in separate interviews with The Guardian, the 2023 PDP gubernatorial candidate in Ogun, Oladipo Adebutu, said the development has shown how the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been toying with the collective destiny of Ogun State people.

Adebutu, who spoke through his media aide, Afolabi Orekoya, said President Tinubu should not allow the issue to be swept under the carpet but that anyone culpable should be punished for the shame inflicted on the country, especially the good people of Ogun.

He said the revelation could scare investors away from the state.

ALSO, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo attributed the country’s stagnation to what he described as “self-centred” leadership lacking relevant knowledge.

Obasanjo, who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, made these comments while attending the Leadership Empowerment International Conference (LEIC) as a special guest of honour.

The ex-president remarked that leadership is a lasting virtue that endures until the end of one’s life. He added that once the issue of poor leadership is resolved, “we will get all other things right.”

Obasanjo said: “There is no end to leadership and service to your community until you take your last breath. You are never too old to be a leader and contribute to your community, your state, your country, the continent, and the world.

“And if you ask me in one word what the bane of Nigeria is today, I will not hesitate. I will say it is leadership. Self-centred leadership: leadership that lacks knowledge and understanding and leadership that does not view service as the core of what leadership is about.

“If we can get the leadership right, we will get all other things right. This is what LEIC is doing, which is commendable and very good. We must encourage and instil good leadership at every level of our national life.”

He stressed that leadership must rise to its responsibilities to create a better world for all Nigerians.

“We have resources in Africa; we have 70 per cent of the world’s copper. Japan has no mineral resources. Singapore is even worse—no resources!

“But, whatever resources we have, if we lack leadership, it won’t get us anywhere. That is why leadership in Africa is so crucial.

“We can’t create an Africa of hope, prosperity, free from oppression, and characterised by security, peace, and visionary leaders without effective leadership,” he said.