Members of the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, have dragged the national coordinator of the group, Otunba Gani Adams, before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over what they described as financial malpractices.

National Mirror learnt that the three-page petition signed by 26 members of the national coordinating council, NCC, of the group, was received at the Lagos office of the commission last Friday.

The signatories to the petition include Rasak Arogundade, Monsuru Akande, Adesina Akinpelu, Kehinde Ogunyale, Adeola Adeagbo, Ranti Akande, Gbenga Egunlusi, Lateef Oshodi, ‘Layiwola Ogunsolu, Olusoji Folorunso, Sunday Bankole, ‘Segun Olusanya and Sunday Adebayo.

Others are Idowu Akintunde, Oyename Adebayo, Lateef Kaka, Oladipupu Musa, Musiliu Amusa, Lateef Ogungbayi, Morufu Salami, Rotimi Akinsowon, Taofik Hameed, Dauda Oyelowo, Yinka Olowoporoku, Adio Odewole and Alexander Adesina.

In the petition dated March 4, 2016, titled, ‘Please help retrieve our money from Gani Adams,’ and addressed to the chairman of the anti-graft agency, the NCC members accused Adams of using his position to amass questionable wealth at the expense of members of the group.

According to them, the OPC leader has turned the group into a private property such that he is the sole signatory to all accounts of the group.

Adams was also accused, among others, of diverting $22 million, which he received on behalf of the group from the late Libyan leader, Moammar Ghadaffi.

The petition reads in part: “Besides funds stolen or misappropriated by Adams, there is also the case of about six million members (using Adams estimate of OPC membership strength during his pro-Jonathan campaigns) who are obligated to obtain the group’s identification cards at N2,500 each. From identity cards alone, Gani Adams pocketed about N15b every year.

“Adams equally diverted N150m specially set aside by the NCC and meant for building a hotel for the OPC in each South West state capital.

“This is besides the N100m or more, also made by encouraging unwary members to buy shares in the hotel project. The hotel scheme was conceived in 2007 but has yet failed to see the light of the day.”

The OPC members, while insisting that – Adams with his activities has destroyed the image of the group within and outside the country – the time has come for the anti-graft agency to help put him where he rightly belongs. “This situation is no longer acceptable to us and the generality of the OPC cadre who have been at the receiving end of Adams misdemeanour.

“Ours has been for too long, like the proverbial masquerade that farted, it can only bear the nauseating stink until it is dissipated with time,” they stated.

But, while reacting to the petition, Adams said the petitioners are not saying new things, stating that they have been talking about the same issues in the petition for a long time without achieving any result.

The OPC leader who spoke through his personal assistant, Prince Olalekan Segun Akanni, declared that if the petitioners have their facts, they would meet at the EFCC.

He said: “Those behind the petition are expelled members of the group who are seeking relevance by saying the same things for a long time without anything to show for it.