Aregbesola must explain Osun’s finances now —PDP chieftain

•Aregbesola

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the party’s senatorial candidate in Osun Central in the last general election and Asiwaju of Iresiland, Dr Oluwole Oludaisi Aina, has challenged the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to explain the finances of the state in the last five years, noting that the state government had been economical with the truth for too long about the state’s financial situation.

Aina, who made this position at the weekend, noted that it had become imperative for the governor to come clean about the finances of the state, following the revelation of the Federal Ministry of Finance on the September 2015 allocation, which showed that the state only had N55,874,781 million as net allocation due to the state from a total statutory allocation of N2.4 billion.

He noted that the development was not only worrisome but also called for urgent attention by all stakeholders and elders in the state, “because Osun was the only state with less than N1 billion after deductions,” saying: “Aregbesola’s consistent claims that former President Goodluck Jonathan had been withholding the state’s allocations because he was an opposition governor had all along been a blatant lie, as the publication showed that allocations accruing to Osun State for September only remained a paltry N55 million.”

“The question one would want to ask is did Jonathan instruct President MuhammaduBuhari to withhold Osun’s allocations now that APC is in power? This is the time that all Osun State’s men of reason must begin to ask questions of what Aregbesola’s government has done with our money. He should come out with the breakdown of the debts that led to the huge deductions; how much debt did the PDP government left behind and how many projects has his government embark or completed  to warrant the state having next to nothing to  take home with allocation of only N55 million. 

“At least, we know that Aregbesola has not commissioned any major projects in the state and the roads he claimed to be doing are currently abandoned. The question is how then did our state come to this sorry state?, Aina queried.

The PDP chieftain called on President Buhari to begin his anti-corruption drive from Osun State by asking questions on how Aregbesola handled the finances of the state in the last five years, noting that it would be sad to have  Aregbesola plunder Osun State and the APC government would remain silent.