By Our Reporter
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has extended its dragnet to draw in the Clerk of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Mr. Adedeji Taiwo Adeyemo and an Accountant in the House, Mr. Oladayo, who are both cooling their heels in EFCC custody alongside the Speaker of the House, Hon. Olakunle Oluomo, who was arrested on Thursday, 1 September, 2022.
Adeyemo and Oladayo were arrested same day as Oluomo when they both showed up at the Ikoyi, Lagos office of the EFCC following Oluomo’s arrest at the Lagos airport on Thursday morning.
Oluomo has since been flown to Abuja for questioning at the EFCC headquarters, according to reports.
Sources told The Dream Daily Newspaper that Governor Dapo Abiodun was thrown into panic following the arrest of Oluomo, who is allegedly his lackey in the Assembly.
The initial panic turned to a bedlam as news filtered back to Abiodun that the Adeyemo and the finance officer had been detained by the EFCC.
The governor had reportedly dispatched them to the Ikoyi office of the EFCC as emissaries with a view to getting the Speaker off the hook.
Sources said Oluomo and the Clerk have been contradicting themselves under preliminary questioning by EFCC operatives.
Governor Abiodun, who has a huge second-term re-election battle on his hands in the state, is reportedly making frantic efforts to get Oluomo released from EFCC custody.
Oluomo’s arrest stalled the sitting of the Assembly on Thursday.
However, contrary to media reports that the Assembly’s business had been postponed indefinitely, The Dream Daily Newspaper gathered that members of the House are making moves to reconvene the Assembly by next week, with most of the lawmakers backing the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Akeem Balogun, to preside over proceedings.
The Assembly members also have the option of electing one of their peers as Speaker in ad hoc capacity if Hon. Balogun would not step in to lead the House for any reasons.
In a development that may plunge the Assembly into a fresh crisis, The Dream Daily Newspaper gathered that a consensus is forming among the legislators against the return of Oluomo as Speaker even if the EFCC released him.
According to sources in the Assembly, most of the lawmakers are of the view that Oluomo needs to clear his name over the allegation of forgery and financial embezzlement for which he was arrested by the EFCC after he had allegedly shunned several invitations sent to him by the anti-graft agencies.
Oluomo has reportedly been playing a hide-and-seek game with EFCC officials who had a clear order from the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to arrest him for prosecution after the Speaker was investigated and indicted for alleged forgery of signatures, vouchers and receipts to siphon millions of naira from the Assembly’s accounts.
The Dream Daily Newspaper had reported that the allegations against Oluomo had included the forgery of fuel purchase receipts of a petrol station owned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The EFCC had established that the fuel purchase receipts were forged and cleared members of staff of the President Obasanjo-owned fuel station of any complicity in the crime.
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