Amosun
By Publisher
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Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the former Governor of Ogun State, has carpeted Professor Pat Utomi for accusing him of cancelling his contract.
The political economist had in a post on X on Sunday, narrated how, like the disputed Zhongfu contract that has led to a French court authorising the seizure of Nigeria’s three presidential jets in France, also cancelled his own contract and forced him to avoid debts.
This was coming on the heels of the seizure of the presidential jets by the Chinese company over unpaid $74 million compensation awarded by the court against Ogun State.
Amosu had claimed that the Chinese firm deceived him by presenting false information to him to outsmart a rival Chinese company.
Reacting to Utomi’s claim, Amosu did not waste to carpet, describing Utomi as having an entitlement mentality.
Accidung to him, even before coming to power, the Ogun State Assembly had blacklisted Utomi and labelled Utomi an enemy of the state as a result of his penchant for shoddy business deals in 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,” the former governor said..
“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.
“He, 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. After our in-house assessment, my team concluded he could not have spent more than N35 million or at most, N50 million 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.
“It was also obvious that what was being attempted was a move at ambushing the state government under my watch and presenting us with a Fait Accompli, a situation that would have generated a controversy about the demolition of an ongoing project.
“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.
“A few years later, he complained to some people with the sole intent to malign me. When I heard, I called to tell him off because his problem was purely one of entitlement mentality. 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.
“I challenge everyone, including journalists, to let us meet at the construction site and see the N200 million investment he claimed to have made there. Let them also ask what benefit the project would have been to Ogun State.
“Nobody can talk me down in order to look good. I served Ogun State passionately with all my strengths, and I did with my shoulders high. I stand by every decision I took, whether or not people like Pat Utomi are 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.”
