Timothy Owoeye, the speaker of Osun House of Assembly, on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, said the state law empowers governors, their deputies, and some top public officials to go with their official vehicles when they retire from office.
Owoeye made this known during plenary while reacting to the call made by Gov. Ademola Adeleke, asking the former governor Gboyega Oyetola, his deputy, cabinet members, and some public office holders who served under the previous administration, to return the official vehicles in their custody.
The speaker said, according to the State Public Office Holders (payment of pension and severance packages) Bill 2018, signed into law in 2019, the former governor is empowered to go away with his official vehicles.
He, however, invited the secretary to the state government (SSG), Mr Teslim Igbalaye, and the state chief of Staff, Mr Kasim Akinleye, to come for a holistic discussion on the matter.
“I want to call on the SSG and Chief of Staff to let us discuss this matter holistically,” the Osun speaker said.
“Apart from the fact that we have a Public Office Holders (payment of pension and severance packages) Law, that was passed in 2019, I will not say anything further until I see the SSG and Chief of Staff.
“Both of them are not summoned to appear before the Assembly but to let us come together for discussion.
“There are so many things we can settle without denting the image of anybody,” the speaker said.
Similarly, the speaker said the issue of the total debt profile of the state was being investigated by a 10-man committee of the Assembly, empowered by Sections 128 and 129 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999).
He said the sections of the constitution allow the Assembly to investigate further, the real debt profile of the state, which the Assembly initiated on December 21, 2022
Osun: ‘We inherited N407.32 billion debt from Aregbesola’ – Oyetola’s Aide Replies Adeleke
Ismail Omipidan, the Chief Press Secretary to former Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola, has refuted claims that his principal left the state in debt.
Governor Ademola Adeleke had accused his predecessor of a N18.04 billion FGN Bridge Finance Facility loan after the July 16th, 2022 election which Oyetola lost, claiming there is no information on the repayment terms. He also claimed that the South-West state is indebted to the tune of N407.32 billion.
But hours later, Oyetola’s aide dismissed the allegations, saying that “if they had provided the dates where those debts were procured, it would have been very clear that none were sourced under Adeboyega Oyetola in the four years he spent”.
He said on Thursday, December 15, 2022, during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today that the N18 billion was budget support from the Federal Government which other states benefited from and was also captured in his principal’s farewell speech
“It is the same N18bn, I want to suspect, they are cleverly claiming that Oyetola borrowed. I make bold to say that for the four years we ran Osun State, we did not take any bank facility and these facts are in the public domain,” he said on Thursday.
“Is it possible to take a loan without going through the House of Assembly? The House of Assembly members are there, the Speaker is there; they are all alive and you can crosscheck these facts from them. The debts they are reeling out were the debts we also inherited from the Aregbesola administration from where we even paid N97 billion.”
