Accuses Ijebu monarch of peddling ‘rumours’

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has refuted allegations that he unleashed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to persecute billionaire businessman, Dr Mike Adenuga, due to the latter’s closeness to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Obasanjo made the refutal while replying the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who levelled the allegation in his recently released autobiography.

Excerpts from the autobiography titled, “Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S.K Adetona, Ogbagba II,” went viral last week, with the monarch speaking on many issues that he had been quiet on before now.

The revered monarch touched on the 2006 EFCC arrest and questioning of Adenuga, chairman of telecommunications giant, Globacom, which caught many Nigerians by surprise due to his (Adenuga) closeness to those in the corridors of power at that time.

Oba Adetona said in the book that Obasanjo was miffed by Adenuga’s close ties to Atiku, with whom he (Obasanjo) was embroiled in a bitter fight in the second term of his presidency.

But in a letter dated December 30, 2016 and addressed to Oba Adetona, the former president denied the allegation.

The letter, which was made available to New Telegraph Wednesday, flayed the Awujale with Obasanjo saying: “Common sense would suggest that wild rumours should not be perpetrated by an Oba of your calibre.”

The ex-president posited that the type of hate propaganda the Awujale attempted to project against his person in the book was “grossly unbecoming of an Oba let alone an Oba of your status and stature.”

Obasanjo said though he still accords the monarch respect, he needed to set the record straight for posterity and “to caution you from engaging in unedifying rumour-mongering and untruth.”

He also defended the EFCC under his watch, saying he owed nobody any apology in the course of doing his work as president of Nigeria.