The leadership of Maplewood Estate Residents Association has said the allegation that it embezzled N50m belonging to the association is false.
The Chairman of the association, Mr Kehinde Akerele, debunked the allegation reported in some online media platforms on Saturday during a media briefing in Lagos.
Some online publications had last week reported that the estate exco had mismanaged and embezzled N50 million contributed by its residents for procurement of new power transformer after the one they were using before broke down, leading to prolong power outage in the posh neighbourhood.
However, Akerele described the reports as wicked and malicious, adding that they did not reflect the true state of affairs in the highbrow estate.
“As of the completion of a project we embarked upon in the estate, the money contributed was not up to N50m,” PUNCH quoted him as saying.
According to him, N33 million was collected for the project through the N200,000 contributed by each landlord in the estate.
“Each house was earmarked to pay the sum of N200,000 and not all the houses in the estate paid the money.
“In fact, we had to borrow some money from the purse of the association and we also get loans from a few of our executive members,” Akerele added.
The treasurer of the estate association, Adeolu Kilani, who presented a breakdown of the expenditure for the project and a statement of account to journalists at the event, said that as of August 11, 2022, a sum of N7.8m was transferred to the bank account of the contractor, while another N5m was transferred to him on August 26, 2022.
“On September 19, N10.7m was also transferred to the contractor as indicated in the statement of account,” he declared.
The treasurer also emphasised that the association’s chairman did not have anything to do with the estate’s money as he was not in charge of the association’s money.
According to him, the exco usually followed due process in the disbursement of the association’s money.
Speaking about the project, the Chairman of Works in the estate, Jimoh Alade, said that the project ought to have been executed in 2013, but that it was delayed due to insufficient funds.
“We have executed and completed the project. It is perfectly okay with a stable power supply estimated to have cost around N51m.
“As at the time of inaugurating the project, we realised only N33m. We borrowed some money from members of the association and I also had to drop N1m, apart from the initial N200,000 that I contributed as a landlord,” he explained
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