Alleged Contract Inflation: Oyo Governor, Makinde Threatens To Resign

Oyo State Governor, Engr ‘Seyi Makinde has threatened to resign as the number one citizen of the state, if the allegation levelled against his government of inflating the N998million notebook contract for secondary schools students found out to be true.

Makinde, who said the allegation was the handiwork of spin doctors who were hell-bent on defaming his administration.

The governor spoke at the grand finale of the first anniversary of a private radio station, Agidigbo 88.7FM, held at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Ibadan.

He said allegations of contract inflation, fraudulent contract bidding and contract ambiguity against his administration were untrue, insisting that if thorough investigation was conducted and the allegations were found to be true, he would not hesitate to resign.

It would be recalled that a review of the Oyo State Open Contracting portal, carried out by a study group, known as Dataphyte, alleged that the notebooks came with a unit price of N2,100.

The review said the secondary school notebook contracts awarded up to N998million between August 2019 and December 2020 had been subject to contract inflation, fraudulent contract bidding and contract ambiguity, which was said to have been awarded to the founder of Agidigbo FM, Alhaji Oriyomj Hamzat.

The governor further said the people behind the report said they carried out market survey, which revealed that the unit price of the notebook was between N250 and N300, adding that, “if the printing price of each notebook is above N300, I will resign.”

Earlier, the founder of the radio station, Hamzat, whose prepared speech was read by the Head of the station, Mr. Ibrahim Adebayo, said within one year, the company has through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), empowered many people in the state.