Date: 2020-08-22

It has come to the attention of members of our committee that a certain group, Kwara Agenda, which purports to be an NGO, has written a petition to the effect that the Committee on the Review of Sales of Kwara State Govt Properties (1999-2019) indicted retired Justice Orilonishe in our report.

To start with, the Commitee on the Review of Sales of Kwara State Govt Properties was a fact-finding one which had no powers to indict and therefore did not indict anyone, including retired justice Orilonishe

What the committee did was to take stock of all Kwara State government's properties that were disposed of or bought within the period under review.

The committee also identified the beneficiaries of such sale, the value of properties at the point of sale, and how much was paid by the individual beneficiaries.

By its recommendations, all government's quarters allocated to judges of Kwara State judiciary were to be left to the beneficiaries because the committee found that such quarters were lawfully allocated to and acquired by these judges.

The exception to this recommendation was the sale of a government's chalet to a judge (not Orilonishe) which the committee recommended should be reversed and another quarter given to the said judge. That was because the chalets were not meant to be sold.

No 8 Trinity School Road GRA is the quarters occupied by retired Justice Orilonishe while in service. He is entitled to have the same quarter allocated to them on retirement just like his brother judges had their own quarters allocated to them upon retirement. Therefore, it was not out of place that our committee ascribed the quarter to him (in our report) because he is ordinarily the person entitled to be in possession of it. There is however nowhere the panel indicted the said judge or any judge at all.

It has also come to our notice that the same Kwara Agenda claimed that the portion of our report which recommended that the government should investigate a new structure behind retired Justice Orilonishe Quarters locates at Peter Olorunnishola Street (Ilorin) is an indictment on the judge. Far from that, a call for investigation is never an indictment of any person.

If Kwara Agenda and indeed anyone has any real issue, they should feel free to take such matters to the commission of inquiry which has since called for memoranda from members of the public. That is a more decent and patriotic effort instead of what appears like a contrived attempt to malign an innocent person in a baseless attempt to discredit the panel.

While we urge the government to remain focused and determined in the total recovery of public properties unlawfully or unfairly disposed of, as had earlier been recommended by our committee, we implore members of the public to support this endeavour to stamp out impunity in the interest of all.

Senator Suleiman Makanjuola Ajadi

Chairman, Commitee on the Review of Sales of Kwara State Govt Properties from 1999 to date (2019)

20th August, 2020,