New Telegraph

N30m Fraud: Aiyedatiwa Sacks Aide, Orders Probe

Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has dismissed from office the Special Assistant on Forestry, Mr Adeboye Taofiq Ewenla, for alleged bribery allegations rocking the department.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan, said the sack, which took immediate effect, followed allegations of bribery and intimidation levelled against Ewenla by some timber merchants in the state.

Ewenla, who was recently appointed Special Assistant to Governor Aiyedatiwa on Forestry, representing Ondo Central senatorial district, was accused of allegedly demanding the sum of N30 million from timber traders in the state before they could be allowed to operate.

In a leaked telephone conversation, Ewenla allegedly asked a timber merchant to pick the option to either pay the said amount or be ready to contend with the government’s support for the trader’s competitors contesting the forestry space with them.

Ewenla, who allegedly threatened the traders, could be overheard in the telephone conversation, insisting that the traders should bury the idea of embarking on any operation in the state if the money was not paid.

The trader in the conversation complained to Ewenla, who is fondly called Adedibu that his claim was unrealistic since the traders did not even realise such an amount of money as profit in a year.

He was said to have flared up, castigating the trader for his union’s unsettling silence, since the monetary demand was made, and adding that the traders should have come to negotiate terms with him.

However, a member of the timber traders said they might resort to selfhelp and protest if the government did not listen to their demands, even as he said that arrangements were already in place to perfect, what he called “the most suitable response to the exploitative demand of the government made to us through the aide of the governor.”

Meanwhile, Governor Aiyedatiwa has ordered a comprehensive probe into the activities of those saddled with the responsibility of managing forest reserves in the state.

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