[Politics News] PDP Says: Aregbesola squandered N6.3bn as office overhead cost in a year

The Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP) in Osun State has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of expending the sum of N6,367, 390, 350.64(Six billion, three hundred and sixty seven million, three hundred and ninety thousand, three hundred and fifty naira, sixty four kobo)in 2016 as overhead cost in his office.

The Chairman of the party in the state, Mr Soji Adagunodo disclosed this while addressing the press in Osogbo on Thursday, saying that the government’s financial recklessness was solely responsible for the economic woes in the state.

Adagunodo said that the revelation became pertinent and was reinforced by the audited report released by the government as a result of the pressure mounted on the government by European Union Transparency Initiative.

He added that of the N6.3bn spent in the office of the governor, which comprises the Governor, Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government, and Chief of Staff, the sum of N5.05bn ( Five billion and fifty million naira ) was spent in the office of the Governor alone.

Adagunodo stressed that the Governor was being hypocritical, adding that while he was urging civil servants in the state to endure with the acclaimed economic predicament and cope with half salaries, “he was busy throwing around billions of naira in the guise of overhead personnel cost “.

“For those who may be wondering where the N11.744bn received by Osun State as bail-out funds in 2016 went into, this should satisfy part of their curiosity.

“For example, the office of the Governor, which is principally made up of the Governor, Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government and Chief of Staff expended a sum of six billion, three hundred and sixty seven million, three hundred and ninety thousand, three hundred and fifty naira, sixty four kobo.

“While the so called progressive Governor spent over N276 million on improvement of his office infrastructure in 2016, only a sum of N1.18m was spent on the improvement of infrastructure in the hospitals in the 30 local government areas and the Ife East area office.

“Some of the other wasteful expenses include a sum of over N10m spent on the building of a website called O-JOB Portal, as well as several millions of naira on the maintenance of an aircraft which is hardly seen in Osun State.

“Our party is compelled to bring some of these senseless spending and financial irregularities to the attention of the general public on order to sensitize the good people of Osun State about the cause of the parlous state of our economy.

“It is therefore necessary that as the major opposition party, the PDP under my leadership takes up this challenge in order to put the records straight and put some facts and figures in the public domain for the sake of prosperity”, Adagunodo said.

Meanwhile, the Director of Research, Publicity and Strategy for the APC, Mr Kunle Oyatomi in his reaction said the PDP lacks the moral standing to accuse Aregbesola of waste.

He said the PDP did worst while in power, adding that all loans secured by the government was for rapid infrastructural development in the state.