Sanwo-Olu Names Adetola New Lagos Accountant-General
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the redeployment of Dr. Muyiwa John Adetola as the new Accountant-General of Lagos State. The appointment, which includes the role of Permanent Secretary of the State Treasury Office (STO), took immediate effect on Monday, March 2. Adetola succeeds Dr. Abiodun Muritala, who has reached the statutory age for retirement from the state’s civil service.
The move sees Adetola cross over from the Office of the State Auditor-General, where he had served as the substantive Auditor-General since February 2024. This strategic “musical chairs” within the state’s financial hierarchy is designed to ensure continuity in public financial management. By moving the former chief auditor into the chief accounting role, the administration appears to be doubling down on fiscal oversight and transparency.
Dr. Adetola is no stranger to the state’s balance sheets. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), his career has been defined by high-level performance auditing and forensic finance. Before his elevation to Auditor-General, he headed the Directorate of Performance Audit, where he was tasked with ensuring that government spending met specific value-for-money benchmarks.
The Head of Service, Bode Agoro, issued an official circular on Tuesday, urging all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to cooperate with the new treasury head. Agoro emphasised that Adetola’s background in auditing provides him with the unique “eagle-eye” perspective required to manage the state’s vast treasury operations. The transition is being framed not just as a routine replacement, but as an upgrade in the state’s capacity to monitor expenditure control and revenue collection.
As the new Accountant-General, Adetola inherits a treasury that is increasingly reliant on technology for payroll management and vendor payments. His primary mandate will involve overseeing the publication of the state’s financial statements and maintaining the stability of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). With Lagos maintaining the largest internally generated revenue (IGR) in Nigeria, the pressure to maintain a “clean” audit trail is constant.
The outgoing Accountant-General, Dr Abiodun Muritala, leaves behind a legacy of digitising the state’s pension and treasury systems. Adetola is expected to build on this by integrating more advanced data analytics into the State Treasury Office’s daily operations. For Sanwo-Olu, placing a trusted auditor at the helm of the treasury is a signal to both the public and international investors that Lagos intends to keep a very tight grip on its purse strings.