Spokesperson of Bola Oyebamiji campaign, Remi Omowaiye has been linked to a 2017 N120 million unexecuted drone contract which is now valued at almost N800 million naira.
Omowaiye handled the project when he served as a commissioner for Science and Tech under Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola and later as Commissioner for Works under former Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Reports from within the Ministry of Science and Tech of the Osun state government indicated that 20 drones were ordered under the previous APC government through a memo initiated by Mr Omowaiye as the Commissioner.
The cost of the drones according to the file was paid in dollars while the clearing cost was also fully paid under the coordination of Mr Omowaiye.
Records showed that Omowaiye did not allow the contract to go through the procurement process and the fund was illegally sourced from the state's local government allocation.
The drones were ordered to support security operations in the state and were handled by Omowaiye who was also supervising the Science and Tech ministry in the dying days of Oyetola administration.
The drones were however not delivered throughout the tenure of the two APC governments and till date.
Those serving at the security and ICT departments corroborate the story as they alleged that the plan by the Oyetola administration to purchase the drones was public knowledge.
“The payment for the drones were made. Omowaiye also collected a lot of money for the clearing of the drones at the port. But we were surprised because the matter just ended there and no drone was delivered. This issue is an open secret within the state civil service”, a source in the knowledge of the matter disclosed.
@Government Media Centre, Abere.