Untold Story Of How Senator Amosun’s Alleged Greed Upturned Ogun Economic Prospects

<h4>Untold Story Of How Senator Amosun&&num;8217&semi;s Alleged Greed Upturned Ogun Economic Prospects<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that as the world literally stood still yesterday&comma; Monday&comma; May 22&comma; 2023 at the commissioning of world largest single train refinery in Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos&comma; some citizens in neighbouring Ogun State were lamenting&comma; regretting ever having Senator Ibikunle Amosun who presided over the State between 2011 and 2019 as executive governor&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the story&comma; the newly commissioned daily 650&comma;000 barrel processing Dangote refinery which would employ over 100&comma;000 Nigerian youths and generate over &dollar;21 billion in revenue&comma; was naturally planned to be established in the Ijebu water side of Ogun State&comma; a development that would have ushered economic rebound to the gateway State&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But Amosun&&num;8217&semi;s alleged greed and poor business insights denied the State the opportunity&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A top civil servant in the Ogun State civil service who spoke to OpenLife Monday night said&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>The genesis of the Olokola FTZ started during former governor Segun Osoba&&num;8217&semi;s tenure between 1999 and 2003&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>Osoba could not scale through the 2003 governorship election and Gbenga Daniel came in&period; Daniel saw the prospects in the initiative and finalised it&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>But Amosun and his boys threw it away<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he lamented&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Continuing&comma; the civil servant who preferred to be anonymous because of regulation added&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>First&comma; they said Ogun gave him too much free land&period; Therefore&comma; he should come and pay&period; He was willing to pay&comma; then they said&comma; he should give the state govt a stake in the project and he objected saying his business model doesn&&num;8217&semi;t allow minority stakeholder&period; They Ogun commissioners then embargoed the project&period; At the time&comma; he had taken the loan from the Paris bank and the interest was counting&period; The delayed him for more than two years&comma; hoping he would capitulate&period; At the last moment when he wanted to return the loan and pay off the interest&comma; Fashola heard about it and offered him LFTZ free&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;We regret having Amosun&period; He has committed sins that are unforgettable and unforgivable&period; Generations yet unborn will not forgive Amosun for this lost opportunity&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong> <&sol;em>he lamented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It would be recalled that at the commissioning on Monday&comma; President Muhammadu Buhari expressed optimism&comma; saying the refinery will save the country huge forex that would have been spent on fuel importation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Aliko Dangote&comma; the chairman of the company disclosed that the first products from the refinery would hit the market towards the end of July this year&comma; adding that the refinery currently has over 33&comma;000 employees&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The billionaire businessman said the project was the realisation of a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;clear opportunity” for Nigeria&comma; citing the African Union’s commitment to the creation of an African common market through the African Continental Free Trade Area&comma; AfCFTA&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The facility is expected to produce Premium Motor Spirit &lpar;petrol&rpar;&comma; diesel &lpar;Automotive Gas Oil&rpar;&comma; aviation jet fuel and Dual-Purpose Kerosene &lpar;DPK&rpar;&comma; among other refined products&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;