Aregbesola, PDP trade words over expenditure of N6.3bn
Mr Rauf Aregbesola
Osun state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola
OSUN State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Thursday exchanged altercations over expenditure of N6, 367, 390, 350.64 on the overhead cost of the Office of the Governor in 2016.
The state chairman of the main opposition party, Hon Soji Adagunodo, who addressed a press conference in Osogbo, Osun State capital argued that the amount exceeded the funds allocated to the education, health and agricultural sectors in the same year.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, the state chairman of the main opposition party, Hon Soji Adagunodo said their position on what he termed allegedly financial recklessness was premised on the 2016 audited report of the state government, which was made public few months ago by the Auditor General of the state, Mr Folorunso Adesina.
According to him, “of this figure, the sum of N5.05 billion was spent on overhead cost in the office of the governor. This was an increase of almost 400% on the sum of N1.2 billion spent on the same overhead cost in 2015. The question is what could be responsible for this astronomical rise in the overhead cost of running the office of the governor within 12 months. How much of this money was funnelled into private pockets and on political patronage”.
“This becomes even more worrisome when one considers the fact that in the whole of the year 2016, Osun State was in deficit in the federation allocation account for 10 months. In other words, while the state was groaning under the yoke of zero allocation as a result of heavy deduction of loans incurred by this wasteful government, the governor was on a spending spree to cater for himself and his acolytes who have since turned the state into their personal estate”, Adagunodo asserted.
But, when contacted, the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Lani Baderinwa maintained that the accusation of the PDP amounted to the ranting of an ant.
He affirmed that “it is ranting of an ant. The goodwill visits to all the nine federal constituencies in the state by Governor Aregbesola in the last two weeks and the mega rally in Osogbo two days ago proved to the PDP that they are nowhere to be found”.
“They only conjure figures. Let them come out and substantiate their claims. The PDP is known to be gifted and has the capacity for manipulation, mischief-making and all that is ignoble. The people of Osun State know inside out what PDP is made of. They have rejected them before and they will still be rejected in September 2018”.
Similarly, Aregbesola’s media adviser, Mr Sola Fasure pointed out that the accusation by the PDP in Osun was a product of mischief, adding that members of the public should disregard the matter.
Fasure, who spoke during a telephone chat with the Nigerian Tribune posited that”all the agencies of the government, including the SDGs, are domiciled in the Office of the Governor. All agencies of the state government are under the Governor’s Office. There should be about 20 agencies or more. All these things are mischief. We would come up with an official response soon. But, it is pure mischief. It is pure mischief I can assure you of that”.