Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun Sate has called out Senator Iyola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the N480 billion figure the latter had said was the amount borrowed by the his administration.
According to the PUNCH, in a statement issued by Governor Aregbesola’s media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, Senator Omisore was labeled ‘an incorrigible liar’.
The governor who described Senator Omisore as one of his traducers said that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN), released statistics of the state of the nation’s revenue on Monday, June 15, 2015 had laid the claims to rest.
He said, “For us, Omisore is not the issue as we are more focused on getting the salary issue resolved and put it behind us as fast as possible. However, it is germane to note that traducers of the Aregbesola administration in the ilk of Omisore should be told that capitalising on the plight of the state and its workers through fraudulent figures is not only self-serving, it is also wicked and ungodly.
“Going by the CBN’s revelations on Monday as reported by the Nigerian media on Tuesday, the Osun governor has only been vindicated on his claims which explains the reasons for the unavoidable delays in the payment of salaries.”
According to him, he had raised an alarm to this effect when he discovered in July 2013 that the June allocation for that year had dropped by 40%.
“That 40 per cent downward journey of the revenue to the states continued till June 2014 when it dropped further to 60 per cent. Overall now, the revenue to the states have now dipped by 60 per cent and that accounts for the inability of the state to be able to cope in augmenting any longer.
“Regardless of these figures, those who want to make gains out of the plight of the state and the workers would rather ignore the reality; paint wrong pictures in order to get undeserved attention to boost their selfish political ambitions. The figures Omisore and his cohorts quote, do not add up enough to suggest that the government had been reckless.”
The PDP on the other hand are insisting that the N480 billion figure mentioned by Senator Omisore in an interview with journalists on Monday, June 15, 2015 were true figures. A statement released by the PDP through the Director of Media and Strategy, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, suggested that the governor was lying to the people of the state by deceiving them that the state was not heavily indebted.
He also claimed that it was a sad thing that the governor within two weeks, had given two conflicting figures about the debt profile of the state.
According to the statement ” Aregbesola, during the inauguration of Osun state House of Assembly, Aregbesola, in an attempt to absolve self of blame over non payment of salaries and pensions, put the debt profile of the state from the loans to be N75bn.
“Ogbeni Aregbesola also told his audience that areas of 2014 salary of workers was N13bn while he admitted that 2015 salary arrears was N16bn all totaling N104bn.
“However, less than two weeks after, Aregbesola, in his reaction through his media aide, while reacting to the claims by Senator Iyiola Omisore, who had put the debt portfolio of Osun at N480bn, said the state is owing only N44bn. It will take several lies and cover ups to cover a lie whereas truth is constant.”
The PDP urged the governor to open up about the actual amount the state owed asserting that lying about the situation would not solve the reality of the financial crisis the governor had so recklessly driven the state into.
The PDP said further, “We as a responsible party stand by what Senator Omisore said that the principal debt of Osun state under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is N480bn as he took N300bn Loan for the local government areas after raising N60bn bond and later another N40bn apart from all other loans for O’meal project, O’ school uniform project. O’ airport project” O campaign project and others.
“If Aregbesola is not lying, why giving two figures as Osun debt within two weeks? What the governor needs to understand is that ruling the state by telling lies will not help him but further expose him as a man bereft of solutions to the present economic woes.”
