Majekobaje Eko Integrity Group Wants LASAA Probed, Indicts Fashola

LAGOS, June 25, (THEWILL) - A group of Lagosians under the aegis of Majekobaje Eko Integrity Group (MEIG) alerted the Lagos State Government, particularly members of the state Executive council, state House of Assembly to the embarrassing corruption at the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAAA) under Mr. Alabi Makanjuola its Chief Executive.

In an open letter to the Lagos Government and the legislature, the group alleged that Mr. Makanjuola has misappropriated huge sums of money which was backed up with documentary evidence but up till the time of writing this report, nothing concrete has been done to call the perpetrators to book.

The MEIG further said the Lagos state Government ought to have carried out the investigation over two months ago when the atrocities of the Chief Executive and his co-travelers were made public but chose to sweep the matter under the carpet, threatening however that it will go ahead to submit its petition to the Federal Government anti-graft agencies to press home their demand for the prosecution of the culprits.

"It has been over 2 months now that we made public the atrocities of Mr. Alabi Makanjuola and his cohorts in LASAA but it seems to us that nobody has interest in the case of justice that we are pursuing. This is because, having submitted all facts and evidences to the Governor and all Exco members of Lagos state. Nothing is done yet and the man in question still had the temerity to call press conference denying all the genuine allegations levelled against him. But we want to use this avenue to apprise all concerned people of Lagos state that something is fishing because this man is bragging about having looted so much from the state via his nefarious activities in LASAA", the group said.

The Group also learnt that the Governor, Babatunde Fashola ordered an independent investigation into the affairs of LASAA of which the report has been submitted to his office for the past 3 weeks, adding that the report even indicted the Governor, blaming him for not acting on the report.

MEIG, according to the letter, also gathered that the House of Assembly set up an ad hoc committee to look into the case of LASAA and its National coordinator was summoned to go and defend the petition which was honored and the committee pledged to do the needful without wasting time.

"Even in the presence of our coordinator, an arrangement was made to send letter to LASAA to produce some relevant documents, including all contractual agreements of the Agency with external contractors from inception till date" it said.

The Group is however worried that agents of the Governor, notably Toyin Cazton Martin, special adviser to Fashola on International Affairs and Protocols in tandem with Makanjuola are currently appealing to the state House of Assembly to sweep the matter under the carpet by wooing them with huge sums of money.

The group threatened that the report of the investigation be made public within one week after which it will have no alternative than to embark on their "Plan B" that would not augur well for both the ruling Action Congress in the state.

It also accused the media of corruption as some of them have taken sides by writing good reports on Makanjuola who is a personification of corruption.