Adebanjo challenges Akande, Tinubu to disclose sources of wealth

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By JOY ANIGBOGU, Lagos

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader of Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has denied that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, built any house for him as alleged by Chief Bisi Akande, in his recently launched book, My Participation.

Chief Adebanjo has also called on both Chief Akande and Asiwaju Tinubu to disclose the sources of their wealth.

The Afenifere leader in a press conference on Thursday took time to disclose how he made money to build his Lekki House.

“The contractor who built my Lekki house is Engineer Hakeem Sulaiman, Senior Partner of Messrs HA Associates. The Electrical and Mechanical Contractor is Engr Tokunbo Oshokoya, Senior Partner of Messrs Oshea Projects.

“The Architect is Mr Deji Johnson.

“The Quantity Surveyor is the late Otunba T.B. Adebayo.
The Lekki property, the house in my village, Isanya Ogbo, and the three-bedroom flat in a townhouse, at Omorinre Street in Lekki, are the properties I have in the whole world. I hereby authorize the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to verify the above facts.

While challenging Akande to also explain how he made his wealth, Adebanjo said, “It is alleged that Chief Bisi Akande’s building at Ila-Orogun, which I understand is more than double in the expanse of my house in Lekki and some other properties he has in Lagos and abroad were financed by Bola Tinubu.

“His house in Ibadan was also alleged to have been built by the contractor that built the secretariat in Oshogbo when he was the Governor of Osun State. I hereby challenge Chief Bisi Akande to clear the air by disclosing the source of financing these properties as I have done above.”

He also challenged Asiwaju Tinubu, to disclose the source of his wealth with which he bankrolled the elections of APC in the Southwest and that of President Muhammadu Buhari and his various properties in Lagos.

“He should also authorize the EFCC to verify such details as I have done above,” he said.

According to the Afenifere leader, about a week ago at the presentation of his book “My Participation” it was said that Chief Bisi Akande stated in the book that Adebanjo brought pressure on Bola Tinubu to build the house for him.

He said that since Tinubu was present at the presentation he expected him within a few days to refute such a malicious falsehood emanating from Akande.

He said, “I hold this view because Tinubu just some three years ago on the occasion of the presentation of my auto-biography “Saying It As It Is” pointed out that for my incorruptibility and strength of character he Tinubu would not have been governor of Lagos State in 1999.

“What then could he be demanding from me after his two-term governorship to make me pressurize him to build a house for me when I did not get a naira from him before he became the governor?

“There has been a lot of pressure on me not to react to Chief Bisi Akande’s tantrums, he is a neophyte, a beneficiary of a struggle he never took part in. I have been urged to keep to the adage not to “Answer a fool less you reduce yourself to his level, but there is also an adage that says, “Answer a fool less he thinks he is wise”.

“A lot has been said in the press and the social media to demolish tantrums. But I owe a duty to myself and to put the record straight for posterity about the big lie that Bola Tinubu built my house in Lekki for me.

“I, therefore, deny categorically that my house at Lekki was built with my resources through the sale of three developed properties, a loan from GTBank and the sale of undeveloped landed property given me by my late leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory,” Adebanjo said. (Daily Independent)