'MY DETRACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR ICPC'S SUIT AGAINST ME'
The Chairman, Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State, Mr. Olusoji Eweje, has described the suit instituted against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission as the handiwork of his political detractors, who have vowed to frustrate his governorship ambition.
Eweje, who spoke with journalists in Abeokuta on Thursday, said the ICPC's suit against him and four principal officials of the local government council was 'a fact-finding one,' which had not indicated that the officials were guilty of the charge against them.
The council boss and the officials were said to have been arraigned at a State High Court, Abeokuta, on Wednesday by the anti-graft commission over alleged non-execution of Asa-Ogunba-Ayetoro road project, which Eweje claimed had been executed through direct labour since 2005.
The local government chairman, who is also a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, however, alleged that some unnamed adversaries, who had written numerous petitions against his administration since assuming office, were behind his ordeal.
He said, 'It is in a bid to derail my ever rising political profile coupled with my ambition to contest the governorship seat of Ogun State come 2011. The detractors have gone out again to malign my reputation and stain my track records in my local government, where I was adjudged the best performing local government chairman in Nigeria by the House of Representatives.
'This time around, having tried unsuccessfully on many instances in the past with frivolous petitions from faceless groups and individuals, they have recently exhumed one of their worthless petitions to the ICPC.'
Eweje alleged that the road contract on which the five local government's principal officials were standing trial in the high court was executed by the council through direct labour in 2005, restating his belief that the nation's judicial process would establish his innocence.