Adeleke’s CoS under fire over payroll controversy as APC calls for resignation

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded the resignation of Governor Ademola Adeleke’s Chief of Staff, Hon. Kazeem Akinleye, over his alleged involvement in the N13.7 billion payroll fraud.

In a statement signed by the Osun APC Director of Media and Information, Mogaji Kola Olabisi, the party described Akinleye as “the worst public officer occupying the office since the creation of the state.”

Olabisi criticised Akinleye for his conduct during a leaked altercation with the CEO of Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, Saadat Ottun, describing him as “raw, crude, rude, and unpolished,” and alleging that he had reduced governance to “an extension of the estate of his principal in his family’s country home in Ede.”

“It is now understood that Governor Adeleke has been getting everything wrong in his waning and unpopular administration simply because those manning key sectors of his government are grossly deficient in managerial skills, as exhibited by his Chief of Staff, who is adept in the use of gutter language, as leaked by the recording of his altercation with the CEO of Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited,” the statement said.

“We, in our party, have been following the obnoxious and primitive actions and inactions of the Adeleke CoS since he assumed office over three years ago and hereby resolve that Akinleye should resign his appointment without further delay, as he has brought more than enough monumental shame to the people of this state.”

However, in a swift reaction, Governor Adeleke’s spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, described the APC call as “melancholic tantrums” from a party suffering rejection by the electorate and its own members.

He said the opposition is largely overwhelmed and in political depression, hence its obsession with key functionaries of the current government, such as the Chief of Staff.

Rasheed added that Akinleye’s leadership ensured the state was not defrauded by Sally Tibbot Consulting, stressing that no amount of blackmail will dent the reputation for integrity and service the CoS has built over the years.