The Media Office of the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, has described as false, unfounded and baseless, insinuations being circulated online by someone described as a contractor who had alleged that the state committed intellectual property theft against him in respect of the newly inaugurated Park Management Systems, PMS.
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, declared that the claim by the said contractor, Moxharley Nigeria Limited, was baseless and untrue, noting that the Oyo State Government decided to set the records straight, having observed that the said contractor has started orchestrating enormous falsehood and arrant lies in an attempt to drag the name of the state and governor into unwholesome controversy.
The statement read: “We will place on record that the said claim of ‘intellectual property theft’ is hollow, unfounded and merely the orchestrated noise of a misguided claimant.
“It was discovered that the said contractor submitted his document to the Office of the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor on October 2, 2019, and that the CoS forwarded the document to the Bureau of Internal Revenue the same day.
“It was further discovered that the same contractor, assisted by a friend of his, who happens to be an acquaintance of the Commissioner for Public Works, Infrastructure and Transport, Prof. Raphael Afonja, introduced the same proposal to the Commissioner, who eventually forwarded the document to the BIR.”
Taiwo Adisa, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde
According to the statement, information from the Chairman of BIR, Aremo John Adeleke, however, indicated that the said proposal was first brought to his office on October 2, 2019, but that it came behind schedule because the Bureau’s memo to the governor on the PMS was forwarded in September.
The statement quoted the Revenue boss as saying: “The said document played no part in the PMS launched by Oyo State Government. We could not consider it because we had wrapped up our decision on the PMS issue in September and we communicated the same to His Excellency, the Governor. If anyone would claim originality of the PMS idea, I would say it is the Governor himself, because he discussed it with me immediately I was appointed in June 2019.
“Anytime you get to my office, you see heaps of documents behind my table. They are proposals asking us to do one thing or the other. We only deal with those that are relevant to the needs of the State.
“Besides, it should be noted that the PMS being implemented in Oyo State is markedly different from what was contained in the document submitted by the said contractor.
“It clearly amounts to a misnomer for anyone to play the victim by claiming that government stole his idea just because government is implementing its initiative to grow IGR.
“Let it also be placed on record that the orchestrated efforts aimed at blackmailing the Oyo State Government over the PMS is not only unjustifiable but baseless and cannot hold water.”
“We will like to place it on record that the Oyo State Government did not and will never steal anyone’s intellectual property. Governor Makinde, as a man who believes in hard work and innovation, will never be party to any sort of theft of copyright or infringement on intellectual property.
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