The Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Patrick Ayo Akinyerule and his family members own and sit in the board of at least eighteen companies as a serving Senator, including bureau de change, oil companies, construction companies, insurance and banking related companies, among other general services companies.
Investigations carried out by LeadingReporters into the financial activities of the company revealed what highly suggests that the Senator lacks the virtue of morality in leadership.
The Senator who represents Ondo Central is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. By virtue of his profession, the moral dimension of leadership should not be strange to him. But that seems far from what obtains. Instead, it has become a situation where public petitions are converted to cash and business opportunities.
LeadingReporters investigation followed series of petitions received by this online news platform that Senator Akinyelure uses his position for self-aggrandizement and deal-cutting.
Among companies with which the Senator allegedly uses to cut ‘deals’ include:
Allover Bureau De Change Ltd, KKT Bureau De Change Ltd, Folly-Tizzy Bureau De Change Ltd, APL Bureau De Change Ltd, TopKem Bureau Dey Change Ltd
Other companies linked to the Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics include, but not limited to: KKT Oil Services Ltd, Allover Engineering Services Ltd, Senpat Engineering Ltd, PAL Construction Ltd, Folly Tizzy Services Ltd, Alphamate Commodities Co. Ltd, APL Insurance Brokers Ltd, Kunly and Associates Ltd
Further investigation revealed that Senator Ayo uses other companies where he fronts his wife and other relatives to perpetrate his alleged corruption. These companies are used as recipients of slush funds from those who have been petitioned and are willing to pay their way out of any indictment. They include:
Folly-Tizzy Bureau De Change Ltd and Bestomi Bureau De Change Ltd
Other allegation, as contained in the petition sent to this platform for publication against Senator Akinyelure is that 85% of petitions to his office become a leverage to negotiate mouthwatering deals with companies, government agencies and individuals. Oil companies are majorly his targets, according to a source that spoke to LeadingReporters on condition of anonymity. Others include government MDAs.
These monies are received in dollars via his Bureau De Change companies or that of his associates which would be revealed in our next publication. Besides, construction companies and oil companies linked to him receive patronage from defaulting companies and agencies that desire their names to be cleaned from every corruption allegations.
A petitioner who does not want his name mentioned shared his experience how Senator Akinyerule leveraged his petition to negotiate mouth-watering deal with a multinational company that shortchanged Nigeria Government of billions of Naira. He said that his presence in the office of the Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics and Privileges became a sore sight that he was literally told not to show up again.
He said it was much later that he received a call from someone who claim to be speaking from the office of the Senator directing him to go soft on the issue as that may become a risky adventure for him. The petitioner said that the caller literally told him that the company in question has link in virtually every government ministry and agency and there was little or nothing anyone could do about his petition because of the company’s strong links.
The office of the Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions is an office where morality should hold sway. But what obtains there is a far cry from what is expected from an office that should be a hub of morality, empathy and patriotism for Nigeria Government and Nigerians.
All efforts to get Senator Patrick Ayo Akinyelure to address the allegations against him as texts and calls text to his known lines were not responded to as at the time of filing this report.