I am constrained to write this piece in response to the bunch of lies and outright fabrications entitled “Open Letter to Buruji Kashamu” by my former Senior Legislative Aide (SLA), Onadeko Daniel Onamusi. It is a pity that you, Onamusi do not have good advisers or perhaps you don’t listen to them, or you cannot on your own decipher between what is right or wrong. Thus, my response to you is as follows:
1. It is true that I didn’t know you from anywhere. You only came to me during the 2015 general election and I welcomed you. I erroneously thought you had been in the PDP long before that time and related with you like I did with other leaders.
2. After the election, you stayed glued to me because you knew in your mind and head that you wanted to be my SLA and that was how you became one of the few people who were with me during the illegal siege on my home by the NDLEA in May, 2015.
3. Quite unlike the picture of me that you seek to paint, I thought one good turn deserved another and that was why I decided to appoint you as my SLA even to the dissatisfaction of other long-standing and loyal party men and associates.
4. When we got to Abuja, I called you and all my other legislative aides who are living witnesses and told you that I was not interested in how Constituency projects were being awarded and executed. And that all I wanted was for good and quality projects to be delivered to my constituents and if there are qualified contractors among our party leaders and constituents they could be introduced to the relevant MDAs. You confirmed all these in your response to the query I issued to you in February, 2017.
5. But to my utmost surprise, you brushed aside my instructions and awarded 18 out of the 20 constituency projects in Ogun East Senatorial District to two of your companies – Stanton Nigeria Limited and Haines and Baines Nigeria Limited – while still holding your appointment as my Senior Legislative Aide (SLA) and drawing salary from the Federal Government through the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).
6. I told you that your action was a gross misconduct and an abuse of office which is against the Public Procurement Act 2007. But, you thought otherwise.
7. When I served you a query, asking why you did what you did against my clear instructions, you insulted me in your response and told me that since I had said I was not interested in the award and execution of the Constituency projects, I had no right to query your involvement in the contracts even while still serving as my SLA.
8. I and other party leaders called and advised you against your involvement in contracts whilst still holding your job as SLA, you refused to listen to anyone just as you are still doing.
9. In order not to be accused of using you as a front or conspiring with you in awarding contracts to companies that I had interest in, I had no choice than to cause government agencies to be involved in the matter, especially when I got reports that some of the projects your companies handled were either shoddily done or were yet to be completed.
10. I never promised you any senatorial or governorship ticket. I am not God! Besides, are you so popular or the most qualified that I would have made such a promise to you years before the election?
11. Assuming without conceding that such a promise was ever made to you and you are desperately looking for money to realise your senatorial or governorship ambition, is that not why you should have been more careful in order not to get yourself tainted in anyway, form or manner?
12. If you know and are sure that you didn’t commit any offence and ICPC does not have any case against you, why didn’t you honour the several invitations extended to you until you were declared wanted?
13. I am NOT in anyway indebted to you and I did not orchestrate any publication against you. The ICPC stepped into the matter to either established your innocence (as you have often claimed and still does) or prove your guilt. And in doing this, when you spurned and shunned their several invitations and summons after being charged to court, I learnt they were constrained to declare you wanted. I have nothing to do with it after making my own statement and tendering all the relevant documents to them.
14. Lastly, on your claims about the two eminent political leaders you mentioned in your piece, although I do not see the relevance to the issue at stake, as a prominent Nigerian citizen and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I do not need anyone to introduce me to any of them or take me to them. For your information, it has been over five or six years since I spoke with Otunba Oyewole Fasawe!
15. I will hold on for now and await your response before I put all the relevant documents, correspondences and exchanges between you and IÂ in the public domain so that right-thinking members of the society can know why Nigeria is the way it is!
Signed
Senator Buruji Kashamu
Ogun East Senatorial District
