Ondo PDP asks Akeredolu’s son to declare assets after appointment

The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has called on the Director-General of the newly established Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit of the state government, Mr Babajide Akeredolu, to declare his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau, as a public servant.

The opposition, which frowned at the appointment of Babajide, who is the son of the state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, said the DG should respect the law and declare his assets to the CCB.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kennedy Peretei, on Sunday.

The statement read in part, “As it stands, all the files treated by State Commissioners will have to land on “Baba’s” (Babajide) table for onward transfer to Akeredolu ( if need be). The statutory oversight functions of Ondo State House of Assembly have also been surreptitiously annexed by Babajide’s office. In the history of Ondo State, no Governor has openly displayed this level parochialism and nepotism.

“Now that Babajide Akeredolu has become a public servant, it is now mandatory for him to declare his assets with the Code of Conduct Bureau. He has to do so at the beginning and end of his tenure as DG, PPMIU. He must declare all the houses and petrol stations he bought with the N430m he collected from the Ondo State treasury without lifting a finger.

“He is under the law, expected to declare the source of his billions syphoned from Ondo State. He is expected to declare where he ever worked before his father was elected as Governor for him to have acquired such assets. Babajide’s father is a lawyer, l expect him to know that, any of his properties not captured in his Code of Conduct Assets Declaration forms will be forfeited to the Federal Government.

“It is more than three weeks that Mr Governor’s son took office as DG in the Ondo State public service. By now he should have completed his Assets Declaration forms. If he has not done so, it is in his best interest to do so with alacrity. If he fails to include his prime properties, he ought to know the Implications.”

However, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Donald Ojogo, said the government would not react to the PDP’s statement, describing it as an “unserious talk”.

“This government will not descend so low into the arena as the case with PDP. Reacting to unserious idle talks is not enviable in any form,” Ojogo stated.