Osun Got N204bn, Not N317bn In Four Years, Aregbesola Replies Ex-HoS

The Osun State Government on Friday reacted to the allegations made by the state’s immediate past Head of Service, Segun Akinwusi, saying his figures on revenues accruing to the state since 2010 were misleading.
Akinwusi had on Thursday alleged that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was being economical with the truth when he said N204 billion was the total accruals to the state since 2010 when he assumed office, saying the real figure should have been N317billion.
But the Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Governor’s Office said the former HoS failed to adhere to the “principles of decency and honesty” in the figures advertised as revenues accruing to the state.
The Director of the Bureau, Semiu Okanlawon, said in May, Mr. Akinwusi had bandied N862billion as the receipts since 2010, and on Thursday, revised the figure down to N317billion.
“What is most baffling and shameful is that the figures which these individuals willfully advertise either as financial resources that accrued to Osun within four years or the debt portfolio of the state are facts that are in the public domain”, he said.
Mr. Okanlawon asked, “Where then do they derive this strong commitment to falsehood? At their conspiratorial meeting in Ife on Thursday which they prefer to call a summit, they all said again that the state got N317 billion in four years, about N111 billion off the mark of what the state got”.
He said Mr. Akinwusi was inconsistent and an embarrassment, given that he rose to become the Head of Service of Osun.
“In May, he raised a false alarm through his party, SDP that Aregbesola should account for N846bn he had collected as allocation in the last four years.
“The same Akinwusi yesterday said Aregbesola had collected N317 in four years. Which one does he want Nigerians to believe?
“The facts that are verifiable state that Osun got from the federation account N177 billion and when you add the unprecedented about N27 billion as internally generated revenue in the same period to that, you get the N204”.
The state government also clarified that the claims by the opposition that Osun was indebted to the tune of N400billion was misleading.
“Recently, the Debt Management Office under the presidency came out to put the total debts of states at over N600 billion. How then do they explain the allegation that Osun alone is indebted to the tune of N400 billion?” Okanlawon asked.
“If Osun is just one of the 36 states of the federation, how then can the mischief makers justify Osun being responsible for N400 billion out of this? Even if all the banks in Nigeria come together, can they afford to give just one state, a single entity, loans to the tune of this magnitude?”
According to him, it is the plan of the opposition to use the painful economic crisis in the country to launch a smear campaign against Aregbesola.

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