Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has reacted to the claim by the immediate past Commissioner of Finance in Ogun State, Mr Adewale Oshinowo that the sum of N18.2billion was inherited by him when he took over from former Gov. Ibikunle Amosun.
Abiodun described as absurd, a statement credited to the former Commissioner that some money the state government had been trying to attract for three years, were among what he inherited from Amosun.
DAILY POST had reported Oshinowo as saying the Abiodun-led government inherited over N8.218 billion, comprising N5.735 billion from the Federation Account (FAAC/JAAC) and N2.483 billion from the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
According to Oshinowo, the N10.6 billion refund for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) due to Ogun State, which he said the Amosun government had laboured three years to obtain, had also been paid to Abiodun immediately he took over the reigns of power; making a total of N18.218billion.
But Abiodun, speaking exclusively to DAILY POST through his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, said “no serious-minded person should take Oshinowo seriously”.
“It is absurd that the commissioner in charge of finance after the last administration will be assuming that the money they were tracing for three years, the money they could not achieve for three years (forms part of what was left in the treasury); he is now banking on it when the money has not come the day he left and he claimed that figure.
“Any serious-minded person will not take that man seriously. He said he was expecting some money to enter the treasury, how could he account for what they have not received? Somorin said.
Asked if the money had eventually come into the state’s treasury, he replied:
“I am not to know. I don’t run the finances of the State.”
Somorin however did not speak further about the actual amount the Abiodun government inherited from his predecessor when he took over on May 29, 2019.
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