Unto Unpaid Salary in Osun state: Aregbesola Took N480bn Loan - Omisore Cries Out
A former Deputy Governor of Osun State,
Senator Iyiola Omisore, has said the administration of Governor Rauf
Aregbesola took a loan of over N480bn from various sources since he
assumed office in 2010.
Omisore said this at a press conference in Ile Ife on Monday.
Omisore, who is the governorship
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state during the August
9, 2014 governorship election, accused Aregbesola of financial
recklessness and lack of proper planning.
According to him, the loan burden and the
alleged continuous wasteful spending by the governor are some of the
reasons the administration has been unable to pay workers for the past
seven months.
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He
said the governor also wasted the state’s resources on political
campaigns during the last governorship poll and the just concluded
general election without minding the consequences of his actions.
Omisore said, “The principal debt of Osun
State under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is N480bn. They took N300bn loan, by
taking N10bn for each of the 30 local government councils.
“They first raised N60bn bond and later
raised another N40bn bond. They borrowed for O’meal project, borrowed
for school uniform project and borrowed for airport project.
“They borrowed another N25bn. But the
principal debt is N480bn. You will remember that we were saying this
before this financial crisis reached this height.
“I raised the alarm then that the way
Ogbeni Aregbesola was running the affairs of the state, he would soon
run it aground. Now it has happened.”
Omisore said since Aregbesola said it
openly on Friday that the situation into which he drove the state was
beyond him, he should resign honourably.
While offering suggestions on how the
administration could salvage the situation, he advised that the governor
should stop his ostentatious life-style and show a sign of remorse.
He said, “The governor should sell the
helicopter; the helicopter has two pilots. They spend money on
maintenance and so on. He should also stop using chartered aircraft. I
am sure this will shock the people to hear that the governor still
travels in chartered aircraft despite the financial mess he put the
state into.
“He should reduce his security votes,
reduce the Government House spending and stop giving Osun money to his
Lagos visitors. He should bring back our money. The contracts were
inflated, especially the road contract. Gbongan to Akoda, Osogbo to
Kwara boundary and the Ring Road were inflated to the tune of N102bn.
So, the money to workers is in his pocket. If he can bring just N50bn
out from this stolen fund, the workers would smile.”
The former chairman, Senate Committee on
Appropriation and Finance, said that he had been assisting people the
way he could without making a noise out of it. He said if he wanted to
play politics with the situation, he would station a trailer load of
truck at the PDP secretariat and ask people to come and collect
foodstuffs.
But Aregbesola has debunked the
allegations of financial recklessness and also said the debt profile of
the state is much lower than the figure Omisore gave.
The governor, who responded through his
media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, in a statement, said Omisore fabricated
the N480bn figure to discredit the administration.
He said, “Every knowledgeable person in
Osun and beyond has the figures of the Osun borrowings by virtue of the
open nature of the Aregbesola’s administration. Osun could not have
borrowed in secrecy as the two bonds were in the capital market and the
Sukuk Bond was taken in celebrated manners.
“While we took N14.4bn Sukuk bond in two tranches, the state government also approached the capital market for a N30bn loan.
“These are verifiable facts and which are
in the public domain. So, what new thing has Mr. Omsiore said other
than regurgitating the same old-fashioned, weather-beaten lies that
could not help him dislodge Aregbesola in the August 9 governorship
election?
“If it is not crime for a state
government to source for funds for the development of the state, Omisore
needs to tell us why states under the administration of his party, the
PDP, are among the debtor states in Nigeria.”
The governor said the state owed its
workers just as many other states were affected in Nigeria. He however
stated that he was working round the clocks to ensure that the workers
were paid.
He added, “For instance, the
Gbongan-Akoda Road; Osogbo-Ila-Odo-Kwara-Boundary Road which Omisore has
fraudulently put at a cost of N102bn all together, cost a bit higher
than N60bn. While the Gbongan-Akoda-Osogbo Road costs N29.2bn; the
Osogbo-Ila-Odo-Kwara Boundary is to gulp N17.8bn while the Oba Adesoji
Aderemi Second Bye-pass Road will cost N14.5bn.
“However, we are not surprised at
this warped sense of arithmetic. It is this same problem that has robbed
him of basic knowledge of banking rules which ought to make Omisore to
know that no financial institution could have borrowed a state more than
it can earn.”
culled from Punch
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