Rauf Aregbesola, a former Osun State Governor, has disassociated his administration from the state debt profile crisis.
Aregbesola on Saturday, December 17, 2022, reacted to the statement credited to, Bola Oyebamiji, the former Commissioner for Finance under the administration of the immediate past governor Gboyega Oyetola.
According to the statement made available to The Trent issued by Sola Fasure, his media spokesperson, Aregbesola said the two major loans he took while in office have been liquidated.
“They were the Sukkuk loans and the other was a long-term concessionary facility by the Federal Government which has a long span repayment term,” the former governor said.
“The deductions are minimal and they are not deductions that will infringe on the finances of the state.”
While reacting to the controversial N18 billion loan collected by the Oyetola-led administration, the minister said, “I will suggest that they look at all the loans and get to the accountant-general of the state at Abere. I think the accountant-general or the permanent secretary (finance) would have better information because it is the accountant-general that raised a memo based on the query of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
“He is the most knowledgeable about the loans by the state as the custodian of the account of the state. They should count Aregbesola out of it.”
Speaking further, Aregbesola stressed that matter is between the Adeleke and Oyetola administrations because his debts have been liquidated.
“I was not the one that took the N18 billion loan that was taken after the election. Oyetola took some other loans, including salary support from the Federal Government,” he added.
The minister maintained that they caused the problem for themselves, adding that “If Oyetola had set up a transition committee and had cooperated well with the incoming governor after he lost the election, there would have been a smooth change of government.
“They would have compared notes and there would be no rancour. But he (Oyetola) was busy sowing mines on the path of the incoming governor, creating problems for him, and spending money with reckless abandon. What did he do with N18 billion? Now the new government is fighting back. If the new government takes the matter up to the EFCC, there would be problems for the Oyetola administration.
Aregbesola, however, beseeched both Adeleke and Oyetola to leave him out of their problems because out of the three loans he took, two have been liquidated.
Osun: Governor Adeleke Reads Riot Act To Former Governor Oyetola’s Appointees
The Osun State Government has directed former appointed officials to return government properties in their possession within 48 hours.
The spokesperson for Governor Ademola Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed, in a statement on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, said the directive was sequel to “large scale diversion of government assets by top officials of the immediate past administration” of Gboyega Oyetola.
“Several official vehicles are missing while official records indicated that two third of former state officials left with fleet of car in their office.
“Most Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, were stripped of operational assets like vehicles, computers, and even residential fittings. Residences of some top officials were equally pillaged even to lamp fitting,” the statement added.
Rasheed noted that any former official who refuse to comply with the directive will face the full weight of the law.
Adeleke, who was sworn in on Sunday froze all government accounts and also reversed the state’s name from the State of Osun to Osun State.
He also suspended three monarchs and the chairman of the Osun electoral commission.
