Mogaji Adanla has cleared the air over his visit to EFCC office.

Naijanewshub.com.ng reports that Engineer Abduljelil Adekunle Kariheem popularly known as Mogaji Adanla has cleared the air following a circulated story of his purported detention at the Ibadan office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a section of the online media describing it as false, baseless, unfounded and should be discarded in its entirety.

The United Kingdom (UK) trained Construction engineer who confirmed to journalists that he was neither detained or held in any form when he visited the anti-graft office fingered former deputy governor of the state, Rauf Olaniyan, in his purported detention story maintaining that sponsors of the concocted story were merely trying to exhibit characters he described as that of bad losers on a failed mission to ridicule his hard earned reputation.

Mogaji Adanla, while addressing journalists at his Ibadan residence this morning said he remains unperturbed about the sponsored media campaign stressing that his petition to the house of Assembly which formed part of the evidences relied upon by both the 7-man judicial panel of investigation and the legislature to remove the former deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan from office was to set records straight.

Linking the circulated story which was branded as sponsored, to the former number two citizen, the Turaki Adini of Musulumi in Oyo state alleged that the former deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan was behind the story stressing that it was all in a bid to fulfill what he had earlier vowed to do.

Mogaji Adanla alleged that during one of his interactions with the former deputy governor over the reconstruction of the deputy governor’s lodge project which was ongoing under the supervision of the Ministry of works, Olaniyan had vowed he would deal with him (Mogaji Adanla).

In his words, “my take is that, it is expected of being a the key witness to the lawful impeachment of the erstwhile deputy Governor of the state, after such, you don’t go home to sleep. I said that all I know is construction, and I major in project management, before you embark on any construction project, you have to do a risk assessment to identify the risk and mitigate against them.

“Part of the hazard (false media narrative) has been identified and it’s not new, it didn’t get to me unaware but it doesn’t affect us saying ‘eni t’a be lori to nsenu wuye, kilo tu ku tio so?’ (which translates someone who’s head is off and still mumbling the mouth, what else has he to say?).

“Speaking on the invitation by the EFCC, I was invited on the 17th of December based on a bogus petition sponsored by some powerful people, someone that used to be powerful in this current government.

“I was interrogated and they identified few things that needed to be identified and after that I felt so aggrieved then, I submitted a petition to the Oyo state House of Assembly regarding his intimidation and his corrupt dealings.

“So, it’s as simple as I got the contract to reconstruct the deputy governor’s lodge, and as soon as I got that, all I was getting from the then deputy governor was send this money to this send this money to that, and during that course we ran out of money to execute the project.”

It would be recalled that the Oyo state House of Assembly during the plenary where Rauf Olaniyan was pronounced impeached, relied on the recommendation of the 7-man panel of investigation that investigated the allegations levelled against Olaniyan which bothers amongst others financial impropriety, abuse of office, and gross misconduct.

The House said based on the recommendation of the judicial panel of investigation, “a witness (PW2) named  AbdulJelil Adekunle Kareem confirmed to have written a letter/petition dated 31st January, 2022 to the OYHA via the Honorable Speaker and the petition was admitted and tendered as exhibit P3 which detailed his complaints against the erstwhile Deputy Governor.

“He confirmed that his company AYOD Nigeria LTD secured a contract with Oyo State Government but the Respondent (Deputy Governor) has been on his neck on the contract sum not allowing him to execute the contract but forcing and coercing him to divert the contract sum to his private pocket.

“The witness confirmed payment of cash of N2,750,000.00 and N3,500,000.00 and another N4,000,000.00 to the Dep Governor’s brother (one Mutaliu) on his instruction. He again informed the panel of the Dep Governor’s intimidation , blackmail and harassment consequent upon his refusal to further part and agree to the diversion of the contract sum awarded to his company, AYOD NigLtd. to the private pocket of the Deputy Governor.

“He saw what I did as confrontation and later asked me to send the furniture element as read in the House of Assembly during his removal. He later asked me to send another N40million to his private purse for the furniture component of the project, saying he has already procured furniture. When the Ministry of Works and I did not do his bidding, he had to start the cold war with me. He made it clear to me that he will destroy me but I told him he cannot destroy who he did not make.”

Mogaji Adanla however, assured that he will continue to stand by the truth and what he believes is just stressing that the harassments would not deter him from speaking truth to power with a view to maintain his hard earned reputation.