Former Ogun state governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has alleged that political economist, Pat Utomi, organised a fake leadership award to extort N200 million from him as a way of getting a refund of the investment he claimed to have lost during his tenure in office.
Mr Amosun’s accusation was in response to Mr Utomi’s “snide remarks” about him on X on Sunday, where he slammed the former governor for violating the contract signed by his predecessor, Gbenga Daniel, with a Chinese investment group in 2007 out of malice.
Following the comment, Mr Amosun said Mr Utomi was only sulking because he refused to feed his entitlement mentality, stating that the professor’s N200 million claim shares similarities with that of the investment group, Zhongfu International Investment FXE.
Sharing his side to the story, the senator said upon his assumption into office as governor in 2011, he found out that the state house of assembly had already blacklisted Mr Utomi as a personal non grata and named him an enemy of the state.
“Before I came into office, the Ogun State House of Assembly had passed a personal non grata on Utomi, and put its resolution in the state’s black book. So, I was curious when I became governor and called Utomi to ask what the issue was. 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,” Mr Amosun explained.
He said Mr Utomi, “however, told me, amongst 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 said 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,” said Mr Amosun.
He explained that, “after our in-house assessment, my team concluded he could not have spent more than N35m or at most, N50m on the construction as of then. At that point, I decided to visit myself.”
“In addition, 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,” he added.
He stated that the move by Mr Utomi was an attempt to ambush the state government under his watch and presenting his administration with a Fait Accompli, which he described as a situation that would have led to controversy about demolition of an on-going project.
Mr Amosun further revealed, “just so that his investment in the state would not go to waste, I committed to making a refund of N100 million as 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 plaque for participating. But I did not change my position on the refund of N100 million as against his N200 million claim,” he narrated further.
Mr Amosun said Mr Utomi complained to some people few years later with the intent to malign him, stating that, “when I heard, I called to tell him off because his problem was purely one of entitlement mentality,” adding that, “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.”
The former governor challenged anyone to meet him at the construction site to see the said N200 million investment Mr Utomi claimed to have made there, as he wondered what benefit the project would have been to the state.
He said, “Nobody can talk me down in order 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 can not lay claims to any lawful damage done to his investment. All he has tried to do is a ‘me too’, which is very disgraceful,” the senator added.(peoples Gazette)
