By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

The Chief Executive Officer, National Inland Waterways, NIWA, Mr Bola Oyebamiji and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State on Wednesday trade tackle over the farmer’s role in the sales of the State-owned shares for ponzi scheme.

The PDP in a statement issued by its communication council on Monday alleged that Oyebamiji, while serving as the State Commissioner for Finance, sold the State’s share in Osun Living Trust Bank to ponzi scheme.

The party also challenged Oyebamiji to explain his role in the sales of the bank’s share saying, “A major state asset was disposed of under criminal circumstances. On behalf of the Osun people, we demand explanations”.

However, Oyebamiji, in a statement issued by AMBO media signed by its coordinator, Adebayo Adedeji, reminded the PDP that Governor Ademola Adeleke’s financial advisor oversee the sales of the shares while he was Commissioner for Finance in 2013 and not him.

“The claim that the former finance commissioner and current Managing Director of National Inland Waterway Authority ( NIWA) was involved in the said transaction is imagined, false and misleading: it is a calculative plot to cast aspersion on the good name of Mr Oyebamiji, who is ready to wrestle power the current bad governance of Senator Ademola Adeleke.

“We write that Bola Oyebamiji played no role in how Osun State’s shares in LivingTrust was sold to private investors as the transaction which ceded the shares to private investors took place long before he became the Commissioner of Finance in the state. Matter-of-factly, the divestment of Osun’s shares occured in 2013 when Dr Wale Bolorunduro, who reportedly is now a financial advisor to Governor Adeleke, was the Commissioner of Finance.

“LivingTrust Mortgage Bank, which used to be named Omoluabi Mortgage Bank was wholly state-owned until 2013 when it was converted from a Private Limited Liability Company to a Public Limited Liability Company and subsequently listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange where its shares were publicly traded.

“In 2013, the administration preceding Oyetola’s approached the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise N1.6 billion in share capital, ensuring that the company met the N2.5 billion threshold for national mortgage banking.

“The Adeleke government, if truly is concerned about probity and transparency, should undertake a financial review of how return made from the privatisation of LivingTrust was managed by the characters calling the shots in the government today rather than labouring itself and heckling the apex bank with a contrived and despicable nomination”, he added.