National Publicity Secretary of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has submitted documents of corruption allegations against Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Odumakin is an indigene of Osun State.
In the petition submitted on behalf of a group, Osun Stakeholders, titled, “Petition against Governor Rauf Aregbesola for financial recklessness, corruption, money laundering and fraudulent application of Osun State’s resources,” Odumakin alleged that Aregbesola had sunk the state into abject poverty.
The group said a forensic audit of the Osun State government accounts had become necessary as the state was already bankrupt and had become the poorest state in Nigeria.
The petition said Osun “is littered with abandoned projects even though loans were secured by this administration to execute them. Today, our dear state has become the embodiment of lack, poverty, purposelessness, wickedness and insensitivity of political leaders of the highest order in the country.”
It stated that families could no longer survive and the people of the state now looked up to the EFCC to ensure that the state’s funds were recovered.
The petition lamented that Osun State had become an object of scorn and a symbol of poverty in the nation because of Aregbesola’s recklessness.
Reacting, the Director of Research, Strategy and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, said the state government owed only N87bn, adding that the government could account for every penny spent.
He said, “The entire debt of the state government currently stands at N87bn. We took over government in November 2010 and between November and December, we got N5.6bn. In 2011, we got N59.2bn. In 2012, we got N75.6bn. In 2013, we got N104.2bn. In 2014, we got N49bn and so far this year, we got N24bn.
“All these monies were received as federal allocation, from budget augmentation, from the Excess Crude Account and other sources of income. Within these periods, we spent about N196bn on salaries, pensions and other expenditure. So, how have we mismanaged the state?”
Oyatomi said anyone that was accusing the state government must be ready to provide evidence.
He said the petition was sponsored by political enemies bent on distracting the administration.
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