The Ogun State government has debunked a news item published by the Peoples Gazette, alleging that the governor of Ogun State allegedly demanded ₦7.5 billion from the Nigerian Navy after “dubiously handing over 100 hectares of land to it.”
The Ogun State government in a release by the Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to the governor, Hon. Kayode Akinmade, said the allegation by the Peoples Gazette is further from the truth, describing it “jaundiced, baseless and salacious report” clearly “bearing the imprints of political adversaries, dazed by Abiodun’s studious refusal to bulge and are intent on distracting the governor from fulfilling his electoral pledges to the people of Ogun State.
The statement reads in part, “Our attention has been drawn to a mischievous, misleading, and libelous report by the Peoples Gazette alleging that Governor Dapo Abiodun demanded N7.5 billion from the Nigerian Navy after ‘dubiously handing over 100 hectares of land to it.’
“The allegation is that after he made headlines by announcing that he had handed over 100 hectares of land to the Nigerian Navy to build a Naval Forward Operating Base and dockyard to develop the backwater Abigi community, Governor Dapo Abiodun turned around and asked the Navy to pay for the land in question.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. This jaundiced, baseless, and salacious report clearly bears the imprint of political adversaries intent on distracting the Governor from fulfilling his electoral pledges to the people of Ogun State, dazed by his studious refusal to budge.
“The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian Navy contacted the state government, saying that it needed to have a base in Ogun State and requested land to actualize that purpose. Upon receiving the request, the state government set up a committee, comprising government officials and naval officials, including those from the Bureau of Lands, to actualize the request. The request was for 150 hectares.
“The Bureau of Lands was mandated to source a suitable parcel of land. Contrary to the request by the Navy, however, the committee was able to allocate land covering only 100 hectares. The provisional survey indicating the geographical location of the land and the supposed cost of allocation, which is standard protocol, was prepared for the attention of the governor.
“After this, the Bureau of Lands wrote, stating the cost of the land, putting it at N7.5 billion. However, exercising his powers as governor and with national security imperatives in mind, His Excellency directed that the land should be granted to the Navy ex gratia (free of charge), and thereafter, the proper survey plan was executed, and a Certificate of Occupancy on the land was signed by His Excellency. The same has since become a registered document at the Abeokuta Land Registry as we speak. It is open for verification by the whole world. We dare naysayers to prove us wrong.
“Strangely, in its inciting, poorly sourced, and warped report, Peoples Gazette tried to robe Governor Abiodun in the garb of a villain, who publicly donated land to the Navy, then privately demanded compensation for the same land.
“This is, to put it mildly, a horrendous con job, a hit piece by political mercenaries masquerading as investigative journalists. It is fake news, pure and simple, and we urge the public to consign it to the garbage can where it rightly belongs.”
