There was pandemonium at the headquarters of the Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA) located at Offa road, Ilorin on Thursday 1st of April, 2021 as result of fracas
between the Agency’s Secretary Mr. Yomi Gada and the newly appointed Board Chairman, Hon. paul Zhiru Tsowa.
This medium gathered that the pandemonium erupted as result of allegations and counter allegations on financial embezzlement during the management meeting at the Agency headquarters, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity said uproar erupted as result of allegation of financial embezzlement suspected to have been going on in the Agency for almost a decade with no sign of succumb on the part of those reportedly perpetrating it.
According to a source “It all began when the newly appointed Board chairman, Hon. Paul demanded for financial records of the Agency from the Agency’s Secretary, Mr. Yomi and this look like an attempt to probe the Agency in the face of the secretary and reportedly refused to comply with the Chairman’s request. Meanwhile, Mr. Yomi resistance perceived to be an insult by the chairman and this eventually led to verbal attack and threatening of each other that almost ended up in physical combat if not the interference of the General Manager and other people that were at the meeting”
Meanwhile, another source said “the Board chairman, reportedly requested to know the actual amount the Agency is generating on monthly basis, to the reason best known to him, and this seems not to go down well with the secretary who reportedly said that the Chairman does not have mandate to investigate financial activities of the Agency and it eventually led to uproar at the meeting with duo threatening each other.
Another source who happened to be a staff of the Agency while speaking with our reporter said “the kind of corruption going on in this Agency is mind blowing, and people cashing out from those illegal deals are ready to deal mercilessly with anyone or group perceived to be threat”
Added that, “it would take massive redeployment and exercising of executive power to sanitize the agency of those people that seems to be above board, and further save the state government of million of Naira that are been siphoning by those people on monthly basis”
When contacted to get official side of the story, the Press Secretary of the Agency, refuse to confirmed or denied the incident said “I can not say anything about the reported incident”
KWEPA, is an Agency under the State Ministry of Environment established to promote a safe and healthy environment
for the people of the state to live in, and to ensure sustainable development for the purposes of the use of the environment.
KWEPA is also identified as one of the few agencies with numerous opportunities of generating revenue to the state purse if properly manage and giving adequate monitoring to discharge its responsibilities.