Former presidential candidate Prof Pat Utomi and ex-governor of Ogun State Ibikunle Amosun have expressed different opinions about an alleged breach of contract on an Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC) land.
This comes against the backdrop of Utomi’s claim that Amosun cancelled the contract just as he did that of a Chinese firm Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Company Limited which resulted in the seizure of Nigeria’s presidential jets in Europe.
Amosun, responding to the professor of political economy, said he (Utomi) was suffering from an “entitlement mentality,” according to The Niche.
The ex-governor said that before he came into office on May 29, 2011, the Ogun State House of Assembly had declared Utomi persona non grata.
He said, “Before I came into office, the Ogun State House of Assembly had passed a persona non grata on Utomi, and put its resolution in the state’s black book.
“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.”
Amosun stated that he sent his team for an assessment of the land and that after the necessary evaluation, the team concluded that the land was valued at N50 million at most, which was against Utomi’s claim of N200m.
“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 N35m or at most, N50m 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,” the ex-governor said.
Amosun recalled that he decided to give Utomi N100m to avoid the latter’s “investment in the state” going to waste.
“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,” he added.
Amosun noted that while Utomi tried to “sway” him by using “his Centre for Value in Leadership, CVL, through the instrumentality of an Award,” he rejected the offer.
He added, “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 Solutions Conference Series with my presence, which I did, and I was given a plaque for participating. However, I did not change my position on the refund of N100m as against his N200m 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.”
The ex-governor noted that Utomi “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.”
Responding, Utomi said he was just hearing for the first time on Sunday that Ogun Assembly blacklisted him, reports The Niche.
He said, “On what account would the Ogun House do that? He said he called me on account of that. Amosun has never called me. MTN can check the records. I got his number from one Peter who is an associate of a friend and called him.
“When I got him he said my name was not on the list of Daniel decisions he suspended.
“I wonder how he was the one who called me on account of the action of the Ogun House when he did not even know I had a transaction with the state.
“He asked that I come to Abeokuta. When I got there he said the Permanent Secretary travelled to UK for Child’s graduation. He summoned Yewande Amusan, his adviser who I know to be of such pedigree she would not deny this.
“I arrived with my associate Vitus Akudinobi. He then said to her: Prof says he has a project in the Ogun plaza but I did not see his name in the list of land issues. In my very presence she replied him that my matter was a simple straight forward transaction with OPIC it did not merit to be listed.
“He then teased that they may be protecting me. He said as soon as the Perm Sec returned all would be quickly sorted.”
Utomi said he was working on the aggregation on fresh foods and franchising the outlets with a US group when he found someone he knew, Vitus, was on a similar track with South Africa’s Fruit and Veg City.
He said he decided to consolidate and they wanted a good location for a showcase outlet.
He said realtors led them to the OPIC Plaza in Ikeja so they nogiated a BOT deal with OPIC such that they would build the plaza to OPIC requirements, run it for 15 years and return the whole structure to OPIC.
However, he said that after they had paid most of the lease in advance and wanted to start construction Lagos State Government said Ogun did not have the certificate of occupancy (C of O).
He added, “It became our business at considerable cost to pursue that for them. Then followed a long trouble of building plan when Lagos was quite difficult on the matter. Amosun’s stop of the whole process which lad our partners to withdraw after 6 years amount to multiples in losses compares to what an accountant of Amosun’s stature would be making light of. Character matters
“When I followed up into the third year of backs and forth he invited me back to Abeokuta. I went again with Vitus. He then said he had to go to Abuja and that we could talk in the car. His driver and detail were sent to an accompanying car as as was Vitus as the Governor got into the Drivers seat and he drove with me alone in the car up to his home in Ikeja. His wife welcomed us. Before Vitus he said 100m was the maximum OPIC could pay so I should accept 100m and write in with additional claim.
“To hear him say today that we invested less than 30m means he was throwing away Ogun money. A 70m give away to an entitled person who ordinarily avoids doing government business to stay away from bribes.”
