EXCLUSIVE: Audit Report Exposes Dual Salary Fraud By Two Political Appointees Of Ondo Governor Aiyedatiwa

Two officials appointed by Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, as Secretary to Akoko North West Local Government and Caretaker Chairman of Akoko South South Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), respectively, have been accused of dubiously collecting dual salaries while holding two government positions simultaneously, in violation of the law.

These revelations were made in the audit report for local governments in Ondo State, published by the state government and obtained by SaharaReporters.

The report read, "Mr. Amubieya Samuel Adeniyi was a staff of Akoko North West Local Government, Okeagbe Akoko, on Grade Level (GL)13 Step 4, before he was appointed as the Secretary to Akoko North West Local Government Oke-agbe Akoko in August 2024."

It was noted that during the audit inspection exercise, it was discovered that he "receives salaries as a civil servant and at same time received salaries of a political office holder; making him to be taken double salary at same time from the same Government."

"This sharp practices (sic) was identified through the Remita salary platform for the civil servants and the political office holder salary payment vouchers, respectively," the statement from the audit office read.

It was further noted that these "irregular salary payments runs (sic) from the date of his appointment as Secretary of the council through to the time of writing the report (August 2024 to February 2025)."

"This sharp practices (sic) contravenes the provisions of section 309, part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the constitution, specifically section 2 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which prohibits such dual payments," the audit report further read.

The auditors noted that they believe that Samuel Adeniyi should "refund the sum of nine hundred and ninety-five thousand, four hundred and forty-eight naira thirty-four kobo (₦995,448.34) within two (2) weeks of receipt of the report and provide the corresponding Treasury Receipt (TR) to the office of the Auditor General for Local Governments for verification."

It was also stated that the action of Samuel connotes that he has a tendency to commit fraud in public spaces.

It was further stated that during the audit exercise, it was discovered that "one Mr. John Ayo Emmanuel, an officer of the Treasury Department on salary grade level 14 step 6 with LG number LG 02898 and Bank account details with Polaris Bank with account number 1762213324 was appointed by the executive Governor of the state to serve as a caretaker chairman of Akoko South South LCDA, Akungba from August, 2024."

According to the audit report, Emmanuel was involved in double dipping by collecting salaries in two places as a political appointee while also continuing to receive his statutory salaries and other allowances simultaneously as a civil servant from the same government.

The auditors expressed disappointment in John Ayo, stating that as a management-level officer, he should be well informed that an officer is not entitled to collect "double salaries from the same Government at the same period of time."

It was also mandated in the audit report that a "total sum of one million five hundred and fifty-nine thousand, six hundred and thirty-one naira Only representing the amount of statutory salaries and other allowances collected by Mr. John Ayo Emmanuel while also receiving political emolument simultaneously as a political office holder be recovered from him while the statutory salaries be stopped forthwith."

Commenting on the development, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Lucky, Ebenezer Adeniyan, told SaharaReporters that the development will be investigated.

"This will be investigated and appropriate actions taken by the government," he told SaharaReporters.