This is not the best of times for the General Manager, Kwara State Television Authority, Alhaji Abdulfatai Adewale Adebowale. Global Excellence gathered that he is presently being detained by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations bordering on land fraud.
Adebowale is being interrogated alongside a senior official of the Kwara State Bureau of Land and two staff of the Kwara State Television Authority located at Apata Yakuba Area of Ilorin, the state capital. The immediate past Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed had sometime in 2014 allocated 10 plots of land in the premises of the media outfit to some staff of the Kwara State Television.
Thirteen staff of the Kwara TV through their petition dated 8th day of May 2019 alleged that the station General Manager had sold the 10 plots of land given by the State Government and converted to his personal use. They alleged that since 2014 to date, the said plots of land was hijacked by the General Manager, Alhaji Abdulfatai Adewale Adebowale against the purpose intended by the State Government for staff corporation.
In 2017, the in house Union of the Corporation Radio, Television, Theatre and Art Workers (RATTAWU) started agitation for the recovery of the land from the General Manager which led to plethora of correspondences between the union and the Office of the Kwara State Head of Service . The Union allegedly written to the Kwara State Bureau Land requesting for the allocation paper in request to recover the said land converted by the General Manager as his personal property but all to no avail. The operatives of the Commission during investigations discovered the suspect and his son benefited from the land while the remaining ones were sold to outsiders without the knowledge of the staff. It was gathered that the Kwara State Television boss received allocation papers in the names of staff but did not deliver the documents to the original owners. The suspects will according to the Ilorin zonal office of the EFCC be charged to court soon.
-Akinlolu Abayomi
