Gboyega Oyetola, the immediate past governor of Osun, according to Ismail Omipidan, his former chief press secretary, did not take any loans during his tenure.
Omipidan stated on Channels Television on Thursday that his principal inherited debt from the administration of Rauf Aregbesola.
Aregbesola served as governor of Osun from 2010 to 2018, when Oyetola succeeded him.
Oyetola lost his re-election bid, and Ademola Adeleke was sworn in as governor of Osun in November.
Earlier on Thursday, Adeleke stated that his predecessor took a N18 billion loan following the state’s governorship election in July, adding that Osun is in debt to the tune of N407.32 billion.
Adeleke stated that Oyetola must explain why the state owes N76 billion in salaries and pensions despite receiving a salary bailout of N50 billion from the federal government.
In response to Adeleke’s remark, Omipidan stated that his principal’s administration paid N97 billion from the debt inherited from the Aregbesola administration.
They only listed when those debts will be liquidated, but they did not list when they were procured, he said.
At least, if you have the date when a debt would lapse, you should have the date of when it was procured.
I’m very sure that they did that deliberately to cover their lies, because if they had provided the date where these debts were sourced, it would have been very clear that none was sourced under Gboyega Oyetola for the four years he spent.
I make bold to say that for the four years we ran Osun state, we did not take any loan facility and these facts are in public domain.
Is it possible to take a loan without going through the house of assembly? The house of assembly members are there, the speaker is still there, they are all alive so you can cross-check this fact from them.
The debts they were reeling out were the debts we also inherited from Aregbesola administration, from where we even paid N97 billion.
During the program, Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, stated that another $100 million debt was discovered following the governor’s meeting with traditional rulers on Thursday.
Rasheed stated that the data on Osun debts was released by the state’s accountant-general, who he claimed was appointed by Oyetola.
The state treasury is currently “empty,” according to the spokesperson, following the payment of workers’ November salaries.
We came into government without handing over notes, without anybody giving us a statement of account,” he said.
We called the accountant-general of the state to give us the liabilities and the assets of the state.
Mind you, this accountant worked with Oyetola for four years; he is not our appointee.
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