Oriyomi Hamzat, a well-known radio host based in Ibadan, has responded to reports that he fled France in order to avoid being arrested for a N998 million exercise book scam.
A socio-economic group in Oyo state, Grassroots For Itesiwaju Ipinle Oyo, has claimed that controversial radio presenter Oriyomi Hamzat, who is based in Ibadan, fled to France in order to avoid being apprehended by the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for his role in the N998 million exercise book scam that the Oyo State government awarded him.
In a statement released on Sunday, Grassroots For Itesiwaju Ipinle Oyo, which raised the alarm, requested Oriyomi to ask for forgiveness for his outbursts against the opposition in Oyo state.
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It could be recalled that review of the Oyo State Open Contracting portal done by Dataphyte has shown that secondary school notebook contracts worth N998 million and awarded between August 2019 and December 2020 have been subject to contract inflation, fraudulent contract bidding and contract ambiguity.
The contract, awarded in three batches, is to supply customised notebooks to secondary schools in the state. The first set of 12 contracts totalling N456.504 million was awarded on August 28, 2019.
The second set was awarded in June 2020, with a total value of N94.196 million and described as “production of second batch exercise books for students of public secondary schools in the state”.
The third set awarded in December 2020 at N446.370 million was for the supply of 212,505 copies of 60 leaves’ notebooks. The description stated that the notebooks are meant for the 2020/2021 session of public secondary schools in the state.
But the statement further said it was true for someone to get insane, if he sees money that beyond his mental capacity, saying the recent video of Oriyomi campaigning for his paymaster and calling other candidates names reflected his poor understanding of ethics of a nobel profession of journalism.
The group alleged that it has information that men of EFCC had in last week Monday visited his office with the aims of picking him up but he has travelled before their arrival based on the advise of the state governor.
Oriyomi Hamzat currently in France shares a video of himself react to the news, Watch him speaks below: