A former Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has hit back at Labour Party Chieftain and a Professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi over his comments that the former governor was fond of violating terms of contracts and alleging that he was also a victim of Amosun’s violation of contract terms.
Prof. Utomi’s attacks on Amosun came in the wake of the controversy surrounding a contract dispute between the Ogun State government and a Chinese investment group, Zhongfu International Investment FXE, which has resulted in a seizure of Nigeria’s presidential jets in France.
Former Governor Ibikunle Amosun while pushing back at the allegations by Utomi accused the former Labour Party presidential aspirant of organising a fake leadership award to extort N200 million from him as a way of getting a refund of the investment he claimed to have lost during his tenure in office.
Chief Ibikunle Amosun alleged that Pat Utomi was only sulking because he refused to feed his entitlement mentality, stating that the professor’s N200 million claim shares similarities with that of the investment group, Zhongfu International Investment FXE.
While narrating what happened in the Pat Utomi affair, Senator Ibikunle Amosun said that upon his assumption of office as Ogun State governor in 2011, he found out that the Ogun State House of Assembly had already blacklisted Prof. Utomi as a persona non grata and named him an enemy of the State on account of some shady deals he was pushing at the time, which involved the Ogun State government.
“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,” Sen. Amosun explained.
“However, Pat Utomi 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 that 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 (Utomi) didn’t want another place because, according to him, the place in question gave more visibility,” Sen. Amosun added.
“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,” Sen Amosun added.
Senator Ibikunle Amosun went further to state that the move by Prof. Pat Utomi was an attempt to ambush the state government under his watch and presenting his administration with a Fait Accompli, which he described as a situation that would have led to controversy about demolition of an on-going 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”, Amosun continued.
“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.
“Utomi complained to some people few years later with the 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 is one law for everyone, no matter who you are.
“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,” Senator Amosun stated.
The former governor of Ogun State then challenged anyone to meet him at the construction site of the so-called Utomi project to see the said N200 million investment Prof. Pat Utomi claimed to have made there. He also wondered what benefit the project would have brought to the state.
Sen. Amosun remarked that he served Ogun State passionately with all his strength, with his shoulders high. He added that he stands by every decision he took while in office, whether or not people like Prof. Pat Utomi were in agreement with him or not.