…Berates gov for pardoning police officer standing trial, 52 convicts
…Warns govt against 50bn loan
The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has challenged Governor Ademola Adeleke to disclose the true financial records of the state in the interest of the ‘suffering masses” whose resources were allegedly siphoned and skewed for personal aggrandizement.
The opposition party condemned in its entirety the prerogative of mercy made recently by Governor Adeleke on a police officer, Amien George, who was still standing trial and other 52 convicts, describing the motive as ‘self-serving and ulterior’ to criminalize the state and legitimatize criminality in the state.
This is even as the party sends a stern warning to the Governor over the alleged N50 billion loan being processed by the government.
Addressing journalists during an end-of-the-year press conference held at Ilerioluwa House, Osogbo, the APC Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi accused the state government of secretly signing and obtaining a combined foreign loan of $51 million, N81.6 billion equivalent, using the exchange rate of N1,600 to 1$USD.
Olabisi maintained that the current administration is on the verge of putting the future of the state into a deep financial mess, hence the need for the people of the state to rise to the occasion and hold Adeleke’s government accountable for the palpable financial recklessness.
According to APC, the impression that the Adeleke’s administration has not obtained any loans since inception is a lie from the pit of hell as part of the state’s 2024 budget is being financed from the NG-CARES facility.
“In our previous addresses, we maintained that the Senator Ademola Adeleke-led government, in 2023, secretly obtained loans in the region of N10 billion. The 2023 audited financial statement attested to that fact on pages 60 and 61 of the document as it reveals the domestic debt profile of the state increased to N55.3 billion in 2023 from N46.8 billion the current administration met in 2022.
“Information obtained from the Federal Ministry of Finance indicates that Osun State has accessed the sum of $20 million of N-CARES, equivalent to N32 billion.
“Ordinarily, the first phase of the NG-CARES ended in June 2024, however, the Osun State governor, we are aware, has been misled to go for the second phase of the programme. Therefore, the state has signed all relevant documents to signify her intention to participate in the second phase of the NG-CARES programme. It is called NG-CARES additional financing.
“The Naira equivalent of the loan is N24 billion and the disbursement of this facility is scheduled for any moment from now. In total, the state will obtain the sum of $35 million (equivalent to N56 billion) on the NG-CARE facility.
“Someone will feel sorry for Osun when realizing how the first batch of the NG-CARES loan is being expended by the state government. The impression that the administration has not obtained any loans since inception is a lie from the pit of hell. Part of the state’s 2024 budget is being financed from the NG-CARES facility.
“The people of Osun, particularly the intelligentsia, must task the government to disclose the true financial situation of the state. The people should not be kept in the dark while the government ram them into eternal debt”, Olabisi espoused.
Corroborating the party’s position on the palpable insensitivity on the part of the government regarding the state of education, the former Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Alhaji Jamiu Olawumi lambasted the state government for haphazardly handling the education sector.
“In the year, we also exposed the government for paying lip service to education in the state. This development has made many state institutions rely on exorbitant school fees to source revenues to run their schools. For instance, the state government only supported the newly established state university in Ilesa with a measly N60 million subvention from January to September 2024 as the whole funding for the period came from students’ school fees.
“The law students who are charged N1.5 million per session and nursing students N1.2 million are the ones running the university. How many civil servants can send their children to UNILESA considering the poor remuneration of the workers and cut-throat school fees in the institution?
“Universities all over the world are funded through government subventions, private endowments and corporate sponsorship, not through arbitrary high school fees as it has become the order of the day in UNILESA and other tertiary institutions in the state.
“It calls for sober reflection that two years after the Senator Ademola Adeleke government sacked 1,500 teachers employed by its predecessor, it is yet to employ new teachers to replace them.
“In the whole of Atakumosa East Local Government Council Area of the state, for instance, there exists just one Physics teacher. It is the same situation in Ejigbo, Iwo, Osogbo and other big and small towns in the state”, Olawumi added.
Responding to some of the questions asked, chieftains of the party, Akin Adeyi, Kehinde Ayantunji and Adebayo Adedeji flayed Adeleke’s government for running the state like a personal venture of Adeleke’s government.
The party decried the amnesty recently granted to the 53 prisoners by Adeleke’s government saying it is suspicious, explaining the government is poised to pollute the state with criminals who would later return to their ‘vomit’.
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