Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has contacted the Federal Government in an attempt to mediate a dispute with Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. over the contentious Ogun Free Trade Zone.
On Thursday, Abiodun allegedly spoke with top federal officials after Pat Utomi, a Political Economy professor, accused former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun of withdrawing his property contract with the state government.
Multiple Ogun State officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to comment on the topic, claimed Abiodun travelled to Abuja last Thursday to meet Federal Government authorities about the seizure of the presidential jets.
“The governor went to Abuja on Thursday to discuss the problem. Ogun is at the vanguard of ensuring that this matter is rectified as soon as feasible,” one of the top officials close to the situation told The PUNCH on Sunday.
The move by Abiodun to fix the Ogun FTZ crisis surfaced when Utomi and Amosun argued over a revoked property deal.
Utomi said in many posts on X.com on Saturday that he was also a victim of Amosun’s decision to revoke contracts signed by his predecessor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
He described how he struggled to repay millions of naira in loans after Amosun purportedly cancelled a contract he had with the state government.
Utomi was reacting to Amosun’s admission that a contract he cancelled while he was Ogun governor led to the seizure of three presidential jets in Europe on a court order.
The Chinese firm, Zhongfu International Investment FXE, recently secured a French court order to seize the jets over its business dispute with the Ogun government.
Amosun had said he cancelled the contract with the Chinese firm in 2016 after the Ogun government discovered that the firm’s claims were false.
But commenting on Amosun’s admission, Utomi wrote: “So, it was Gov Amosun’s violation of contract terms signed by his predecessor that brought the shame of seizure of jets from the presidential fleet. I hope he is happy with his achievement. The whole matter is Karma at work.
“The Chinese were not the only victims. One prominent Ogun indigene allegedly committed suicide with a similar Amosun action. I too was a victim. I had leased OPIC land in Lagos in a BOT agreement under Gov Daniel. Amosun stopped all such on being sworn in. I called him. He said he did not see my name on the list.’
“If this happened to Frieda I wondered what enemies were going through. I lost my weary SA partners who owned a successful regional chain across Southern Africa and Asia. I licked my wounds and slaved to pay off the loans. The Chinese had better leverage. They took it and all are shamed.’’
Reacting to Utomi’s statement on Sunday, Amosun accused the academic of making an unreasonable demand following the revocation of the property deal.
He explained that Utomi did not invest more than N50 million in the revoked property, and that the former presidential candidate attempted to persuade him to pay N200 million, but he declined.
Amosun accused Utomi of having a ‘entitlement attitude,’ and said that the House of Assembly had blacklisted him due to his apparent tendency for substandard dealings.
Amosun confirmed this in a statement sent on Sunday in reaction to the famed don’s post on his X handle.
He said, “Before I came into office, the Ogun State House of Assembly had passed a persona non grata (resolution) 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.
“He, however, 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 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 didn’t want another place because, according to him, the place in question gave more visibility. 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.
“It was also obvious that what was being attempted was a move at ambushing the state government under my watch and presenting us with a fait accompli, a situation that would have generated controversy about the demolition of an ongoing 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.
“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 plague for participating. But I did not change my position on the refund of N100 million as against his N200 million claim.’’
The ex-governor further recounted, “A few years later, he complained to some people with the sole 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’s one law for everyone, no matter who you are.
“I challenge everyone, including journalists, to let us meet at the construction site and see the N200 million investment he claimed to have made there. Let them also ask what benefit the project would have been to Ogun State.
“Nobody can talk me down in order to look good. I served Ogun State passionately with all my strengths, and I did with my shoulders high. I stand by every decision I took, whether or not people like Pat Utomi were in agreement with me.
“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.”
The former governor described Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. as an impostor and that the cancellation of their contract followed extant rules with favourable court judgments.
He contended that for “Nigeria to become a better country, one law must be applied to every Nigerian, irrespective of your status, religion, or tribe”, insisting that “if Nigerians truly want a great nation, they should hold their leaders accountable for every action.
“But, if Nigerians allow people to hoodwink them with misinformation, mischaracterisation, and dubious tales by moonlight, it will be unfortunate,” he stated.