Cancelled Contract: Amosun replies Utomi

The immediate past governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has described as false the claims by an economist, Pat Utomi, that he lost N200 million after Mr Amosun cancelled a contract Mr Utomi had with the Ogun government.

Mr Amosun said a verification team he sent noted that Mr Utomi could not have spent more than N50 million on the project and that the Ogun government’s land that Mr Utomi’s firm secured was not appropriately obtained.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Utomi had narrated on his X handle that he suffered losses following the refusal of the Amosun administration (2011 – 2019) to honour an agreement he had with Mr Amosun’s predecessor.

Mr Utomi was reacting to Mr Amosun’s admission that a contract he cancelled while he was Ogun governor has now led Nigeria to an embarrassing situation in which the country’s presidential jets are being seized in Europe.

“The Chinese were not the only victims. One prominent Ogun indigene allegedly committed suicide with similar Amosun action. I too was a victim,” Mr Utomi wrote on X on Sunday. “I had leased OPIC land in Lagos in a BOT agreement under Gov Daniel. Amosun stopped all such on being sworn in.”

In his response, Mr Amosun explained that he contacted Mr Utomi to find a resolution upon learning that the Ogun State House of Assembly had passed a personal non-grata on him.

The former governor said Mr Utomi informed him of construction on a property owned by the Ogun State Government, which 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,” he stated.

“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.”

Mr Amosun explained that while an in-house assessment had appraised the total investment to N35 million or at most, N50 million, he offered to refund Mr Utomi N100 million as against his claim of N200 million.

He said Mr Utomi refused his offer and attempted to influence his decision.

“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.

“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.” he added.

Mr Amosun has been at the centre of the controversy regarding the seizure of three presidential jets belonging to Nigeria.

A Chinese firm,  Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co Limited, had accused the Ogun State Government of breaching a contractual agreement that gave it the right to develop and run the Fucheng Industrial Park within the  Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ).

In 2021, an independent arbitral tribunal awarded Zhongshan $55,675,000 in addition to an interest of $9.4 million and costs of £2,864,445.

After winning at the arbitration tribunal, the Chinese firm applied to a French court, which ordered the seizure of three Nigerian presidential jets until the firm was paid based on the ruling of the arbitration panel.

The Nigerian government has condemned the ruling and said it would take both diplomatic and legal steps to resolve the matter.