The immediate past Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, has denied claims that he took an N18 billion loan facility and left a debt of N407.32 billion.
Recall that the State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, had on Thursday afternoon claimed that he inherited N407.32 billion as debt and N18 billion loan facility from his predecessor.
Adeleke said Oyetola must explain why the state is owing N76 billion in salaries and pensions despite receiving N50 billion salary bailout from the federal government.
Speaking during a meeting with traditional rulers in Osogbo, the state capital, the governor said apart from the November salaries left in the government coffers, nothing would have been left for him.
However, Oyetola has stated that the allegations by his successor are false, stressing that he did not take any loans during his four years tenure in office In an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Oyetola’s spokesman, Ismail Omipidan, insisted that his principal left N14 billion in the state coffers, and the debts reeled out were the debts inherited from the Rauf Aregbesola administration.
Omipidan also disclosed that the Oyetola administration paid the sum of N97 billion from the debt inherited from the Aregbesola administration.
He said: “They only listed when those debts will be liquidated, but they did not list when they were procured.
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.”
Also speaking during the interview Adeleke’s media aide, Olawale Rasheed, said another $100 million debt was discovered after the governor’s meeting with traditional rulers on Thursday.
Rasheed said the data on Osun debts were released by the accountant-general of the state, who he said was appointed by Oyetola.
The spokesperson added that the state treasury is currently “empty” after the payment of November salary to workers.
He said: “We came into government without handing over notes, without anybody giving us a statement of account.
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.”
