Osun APC Wants Adeleke to Account for N90bn

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday accused the state Governor, Ademola Adeleke, of running a profligate administration in his last one hundred days in office.

Adeleke had laid claim to accountability and probity as the fulcrum of his administration during the inauguration of his government on November 27, 2022.

The governor “through one of his executive orders,” had stated that he had frozen all the government accounts “but to the chagrin of the discerning minds in the state and beyond, he has been spending government funds lavishly and frivolously on the government projects without necessarily reversing his earlier order on the government accounts.”

The state acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, the state capital, yesterday accused Adeleke of gross mismanagement of the accrued funds to the state.

Lawal cautioned Adeleke to stop rabble rousing in government and be ready to account for any money he might have spent without due process on the day of reckoning “which is knocking at the door.”

The APC chairman disclosed that if the people of the state have the detailed knowledge of the various funds that have accrued into the coffer of the government within the last 100 days and compare same with his so-called achievements, he may either be stoned or pelted.

Lawal stated that Adeleke would justify his claim to accountability and probity if he gives an account of the following funds that accrued to the state coffer in the last 100 days: “N11 billion from Siftas; N5 billion from NG CARES; N6.7 billion federal government parastatal tax liability; N3.2 billion Nigeria for women project; N4.9 billion state Ease of Doing Business Reforms and the N14 billion left in the kitty by the Oyetola administration.

“Others are N4billion IGR November 2022, December 2022, January and  February 2023; November 2022 FAAC  allocation after deduction N6.37billion; December 2022 FAAC  allocation after deduction N6.93billion, and January 2023 FAAC allocation  after deduction N5.34billion.

“Below is the summary  of the Osun State Local Government allocations within the last 100 days of Senator Ademola Adeleke: ‘November 2022 FAAC allocation after deduction N6.2billion; December  2022 FAAC  allocation  after deduction N4 8billion; January  2023 FAAC  allocation  after deduction N5.7 billion; first  tranche of Sure P left by Oyetola administration N3.5 billion; second tranche of Sure P N2.6 billion.

“The breakdown of the public funds that Adeleke needs to account for in the last 100 days of his administration goes thus: N67.44 billion revenue to the state; N22.8 revenue billion to the local governments.

 “The total amount of the revenue excluding February 2023 allocation that is hanging on the neck of Adeleke is N90.24 billion.”

The APC chieftain stated that “Adeleke within the period under spotlight awarded the dubious borehole water contract to be sunk in each of all the 332 wards across the state at a cost of N14 million each.

“The fact check on the Adeleke borehole contract revealed that it was a scam meant to fleece the state as the borehole contract was given out for N2 million per one while the remaining N12 million on each of the boreholes was pocketed by Adeleke.

“It is on record that while Oyetola was paying the salaries of the government workers in full and as when due, he also offset  N97 billion of the inherited debt even when he was getting negative and zero allocations.”

Lawal stated that Adeleke’s incursion into the political history of the state is a monumental failure which has set the progress of the state back by decades.

The acting state APC chairman restated that such humongous funds that “Adeleke has been squandering is the product of the transparency award that Oyetola received in the office.”

Lawal, however, tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to urgently beam their searchlight on the Osun finances under Adeleke in order to halt the looting spree.