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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Osun State Government, yesterday, began forceful recovery of the government’s properties allegedly taken away by the past administration.
The committee stormed the residence of the former field commander of Amotekun, Amitolu Shitu, in Osogbo, and towed away a Hilux vehicle, warning him to return the remaining two vehicles in his possession.
Shitu had accused the security agents numbering about 15, including Amotekun, Joint Task Force (JTF), and police, of invading his house when he was not at home, and towing away a vehicle given to him by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
But, a member of the asset recovery committee who doubles as the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ademola Adeleke on political affairs, Babatunde Badmus, said it was a state exercise.
He recalled that the committee had warned anyone in possession of the government’s properties, especially vehicles, to submit it within 21 days, saying failure to comply prompted the forceful recovery.
“After the inauguration of this administration, we discovered that a lot of the government’s properties were carted away by the past administration. So, the governor inaugurated an asset recovery committee that came up with a report of assets carted away by the past administration.
“A task force to recover those assets and vehicles has gone on air in the past three months to announce, both on print and electronic media, that whoever has any asset in his or her custody should see the Asset Management Agency (OSAMA).
“Alhaji Amitolu Shittu was notified that he has, in his custody, three pickup vans. We reached out to him more than a month ago, but he didn’t comply.
“So, today, having waited for him, we went to his residence and we met his wife. We met one of the vehicles and showed the wife the chassis number, which corresponds with one out of the three.”
So, we moved the one we met in his compound and told the wife that the two others should be returned as directed as soon as he returned.
“Today (Monday) is our first day of forceful recovery, and although we are still in operation, we have recovered like six today, and we’ll continue tomorrow (Tuesday) we’ll continue throughout this week,” Badmus said.
