9th September, 2022
The speaker of the Ogun state House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo has spoken for the first time on his ongoing trial for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
EFCC had last Wednesday arraigned Oluomo alongside the Director of Finance of the State Assembly, Oladayo Samuel, and the Clerk of the House, Adeyemo Taiwo on 11-count charges bordering on conspiracy, forgery and stealing of alleged N4.4 billion fraud.
However, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to all the 11-count.
However, the Speaker and the other accused persons were were granted bail
Speaking at the Complex of Ogun State House of Assembly on Friday, Oluomo claimed he was innocent of the allegations leveled against him by the EFCC.
He also confirmed that the allegations were contained in a petition written against him by the impeached former Deputy Speaker of the house , Dare Kadiri.
He added that most of the claims in the petition were exaggerated, but he will prove his innocence in court.
The Speaker, who is a lawyer added that charges 10 and 11 filed against him related to activities that occurred before he became the Speaker of the Assembly.
He said, “By law, I am not the Accounting Officer of the House, for emphasis, the House under my leadership operates only one bank account since 2019, through which running cost and allowances are paid directly into the bank accounts of individual Honourable members and staff of the House including the petitioner” he said.
He also defended his refusal to honour invitation of the EFCC before he was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
“I also like to say that the refusal to honour the initial invitation of EFCC was because of the method adopted by EFCC is against section 36 of the Constitution and we challenged it in court, this is in the public domain as it was widely reported but the EFCC refused to wait for the pronouncement in that case before taking further steps, despite having joined issues with us in court.”