Osun State government accuses Sally Tibbot CEO of circulating unlawful recording, alleging attempt to malign Governor Adeleke’s Chief of Staff amid payroll audit dispute

Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, on Wednesday accused Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, Chief Executive Officer of Sally Tibbot, of unlawfully recording and circulating a telephone conversation involving the governor’s Chief of Staff, Kazeem Akinleye.

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In a statement obtained in Osogbo, Olawale Rasheed defended Kazeem Akinleye’s role in the re-verification of the initial payroll audit conducted by Sally Tibbot for the state government.

Rasheed alleged that the consultant recorded the conversation without authorisation and circulated it with the intent to malign the Chief of Staff.

Bakrin-Ottun had aired a recording on TVC and circulated a video clip on social media, claiming the male voice in the recording belonged to Kazeem Akinleye. The clip featured the voice angrily addressing another person, allegedly over disagreements regarding the implementation of Sally Tibbot’s payroll audit findings.

Rasheed stated that the audit conducted by Bakrin-Ottun reflected the payroll of the previous administration and confirmed the addition of 12,000 workers by that administration.

He accused the consultant of acting as a “hired political operative of the Osun APC” and violating cybercrime and data protection laws by recording and broadcasting the call. Rasheed added that court action would soon follow.

He further asserted that Akinleye, in his role as gatekeeper to the governor, resisted an attempt to push through an audit report that could have defrauded the state and negatively affected hundreds of legitimate workers wrongly labelled as ghost employees.

Rasheed emphasised that the governor and his Chief of Staff upheld due process, labour regulations, anti-corruption statutes, and the rule of law.

“The matter is now before the anti-graft agencies. If the consultant has any other details aside from her report and the report of the re-verification committee, she should submit them to the investigators instead of junketing from one media station to another,” Rasheed said, adding that the public was already aware that the governor had halted a potential scam.

The dispute follows a lingering disagreement between the Osun State Government and Bakrin-Ottun over the Adeleke administration’s refusal to implement the payroll audit report.

Bakrin-Ottun had accused the state government of covering up a multi-billion naira fraud allegedly uncovered during her verification exercise.

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The government rejected these claims, alleging that the firm wrongly labelled many active employees as ghost workers to claim inflated commissions.