Bribery Scandal Rocks Ondo Govt As Timber Traders Spoil For Showdown.
Massive protest looms in Ondo state, against the governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa led government, following the involvement of an aide to the governor, in a messy bribery deal.
According to the proponents of the protest, Adeboye Taofiq Ewenla
aka Adedibu , who was recently appointed Special Assistant to governor Ayedatiwa on forestry, representing Ondo Central Senatorial district, allegedly on the order of the governor, demanded the sum of 30 million naira from Timber traders in the state, before they could be allowed to operate.
In a telephone conversation in ThePageNews procession, Adedibu asked a Timber merchant to pick the option to either pay the said amount or be ready to contend with the government’s support for the traders competitors contesting the forestry space with them.
Adedibu who threatened the traders, could be overheard in the telephone conversation, insisting that the traders should bury the idea of embarking on any operation in the state if the money is not paid.
From the receiving end, the trader in the conversation complained to Adedibu that his claim was unrealistic , since the traders don’t even realize such amount of money as profit in a year. Adedibu however flared up, castigating the trader for his union’s unsettling silence, since the monetary demand was made, adding that the traders should have come to negotiate terms with him.
Poised for action, against the demand which a member of the Timber traders body described as criminal, devilish and highly insensitive, the member who craved anonymity, said everything will be done to “resist the corrupt and oppressive regime of the APC government in this state”
Lamenting, the trader said ” only an evil government like the one we are experiencing in the state at the moment, will decide to extort an already improvished citizens struggling to survive under it’s excruciating policies”
Insisting that the traders may result to self help, the trader said apart from the planned protest, arrangements are already in place to perfect what he called ” the most suitable response to the exploitative demand of the Aiyedatiwa government made to us through the aide of the governor
