The opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC), in Osun, and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) engaged in a war of words on Tuesday over the state’s finances.
While the APC accused Gov. Ademola Adeleke of messing up the finances of the state, the PDP said the governor had been prudently managing the state’s economy and finance.
In a statement issued by APC’s Director of Media and Information, Mr Kola Olabisi, the party’s chairman, Mr Tajudeen Lawal, alleged that Gov. Adeleke was finding it difficult to discharge statutory functions because of finance mismanagement.
According to Lawal, the governor has run the state aground and is now running from post to pillar for solution to the state’s financial quagmire without luck.
Lawal said Adeleke had not been able to account for Federal Government’s monthly allocations, other statutory incomes and Internally Generated Revenue in the last 10 months.
“What went wrong with Gov. Adeleke who promised during the campaigns that he was having foreign currencies in abundance?
“Could it be that Adeleke’s calendar is different from the one in the public domain, which indicates that he already exhausted 48 months of his statutory lifeline in 10 months,’’? he queried.
“Adeleke lacks empathy, otherwise, he would not still be keeping Federal Government’s N2 billion fuel subsidy removal palliative for two months when states, lucky to have caring governments have started to benefit from the largesse.
“It is saddening that while some states have been complimenting Federal Government’s efforts by providing their own palliatives, Adeleke chose to hoard Osun people’s palliatives for reasons known only to him and his co-travellers.
“Gov. Adeleke should explain why his administration can no longer remit deductions from workers’ salaries to appropriate institutions when due,’’ he stressed.
Countering APC’s position, Mr Sunday Bisi, PDP Chairman in Osun, said the governor inherited huge debt from the preceding government of the APC.
He said the governor was paying salaries and pension debts promptly, and was delivering on major projects, and so should not be accused of running the state aground.
He argued that anyone levelling allegations of financial mismanagement against the governor was likely a “financially illiterate’’.
“Osun PDP government inherited from the APC government a state that was financially wrecked. Yet, Gov. Adeleke manages to pay monthly salaries without default till date.
“He has paid more than N17 billion out of the N56 billion debts he inherited.
“The governor has constructed more than 50km of roads. Several bridges and channelling projects are completed. Free medical surgeries are being conducted on more than 50,000 beneficiaries.
“Osun’s financial management model is superbly sound.
“All over the country, people are asking how Governor Adeleke is so smartly governing despite the financial liabilities. The record of the administration in financial prudence is astounding.
“Gov. Adeleke is more concerned about stabilising the ship of state.
“He rejected the possibility of probing those who plunged the state into its current debt and instead chooses to salvage the state’s finance and economy, Bisi said.
He warned the APC to desist from its “lies’’ so as not to compel the PDP government to revisit its policy on books of the past.
“Looters of yesterday risk being unmasked to face the consequences of their maladministration,’’ he stressed.
