Kick-off your anti-corruption crusade in Osun, SDP tells Buhari
Osun State chapter of Social Democratic Party (SDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to begin his war against corruption in the state, saying enough evidences are on ground to probe the Rauf Aregbesola led regime.
The state party chairman, Mr. Ademola Ishola in a statement on Monday, June 1, 2015 explained that SDP is ready to help the newly installed Federal Government in its probe by unraveling several financial recklessness engaged in by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the state.
“Few days ago, my party called for the resignation of Mr. Aregbesola as the governor over the deplorable state of affairs in Osun but he has not responded to this.
”We did not find ourselves in this pitiable situation in Osun due to the dwindling revenue from the federal allocation alone, we are where we are today because of the reckless manners our finances had been handled in the last four years.
“Now that the new government is settling down for work, we want President Buhari whose party has been at the helms of affairs of this state since November 27, 2010 to help us look into how the over N350 billion allocated to state from the federation account was been spent.
“We must know how the over N436 billion allocated to the 30 local governments in the state, the N61.7 billion excess crude oil funds and the N14.4 billion SURE-P were spent.
“Osun people need to know how the over N43.6 billion of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the over N400 billion loans and the N60 billion bond were used by Aregbesola’s government”, he stated.
According to the SDP boss, indigenes of the state had watched with bewilderment how the governor’s son was awarded the N8.6 billion Opon-Imo tablets contract and how the governor’s wife had been in charge of multi-billion school uniforms project.
“Morally, is it good for the governor to run the state as a family company? Where are the 150,000 Opon-Imo tablets Aregbesola said will be provided for all students of secondary schools in the state? We doubt if there are 2,000 Opon-Imo tablets in the state today.
“Mr. President, Aregbesola’s government spent about N4 billion on his Dagbolu market but the place remains a jungle. The governor spent over N1.2 billion on his Moshood Abiola International Airport but nothing was on ground till date apart from the fence”, he stated.
Ishola alleged that most of the projects done by Aregbesola were at exorbitant rates, “For example, the governor used between N750 million and N1.1 billion to build new schools but we discovered that it will take less than N250 million to complete each of the buildings.
“In Osun, a kilometer of road costs over N1 billion as if we are constructing roads in riverine states like Bayelsa, Delta or Rivers.
“If President Buhari is serious about his zero-corruption campaign, then, he must not spare anyone. He should help us to know how much that had gone into several abandoned projects that littered the state and reasons why Aregbesola was unable to pay seven months salaries to the state workers”, he added.
The SDP chairman insisted that his party’s stand on Aregbesola was that he should resign as the state governor immediately, accusing him of bringing untold hardships upon the state indigenes due to his mismanagement of state resources.
