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The Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has refuted a report that his administration raised the state’s indebtedness by ₦10 billion in 19 months.
Governor Adeleke said the report was fake and sponsored by politicians to discredit his administration.
While referring to a statement from his Commissioner for Information, Oluomo Alimi, on the ₦10 billion loan, Adeleke stated that his administration only inherited debt from past administrations of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“I’m not sure if this report is the result of shoddy journalism or a political hatchet job you’ve been commissioned to execute.
“However, since some of the good people I serve in Osun State might be following your platform, I find it necessary to respond to your false accusations,” he wrote on his X handle on Thursday.
The statement from Alimi emphasized that Governor Adeleke did not take any loan and was not planning to take any such loan.
“We recognize the deficiency of the person behind the latest hoax to misrepresent the Adeleke administration, but the mistake he and his backer made is failing to intelligently scrutinize the erroneous claim before going public.
“What the opposition mischievously calculated as loans are World Bank and other multilateral institutions projects like NCares, Ramp and Ilesa Water Project. Is the opposition asking Osun state to opt out of many beneficial multilateral projects which are inherited from previous governments?
“We affirm that the State government will continue to support the people of the State in alleviating poverty through the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NCARES) with reimbursement from the World Bank through the Federal Government. This forms part of what the mischievous attackers are parading as loans taken by the State government.
“We invite the public, particularly the Osun people to recall that the Rauf Aregbesola administration secured a facility from the Islamic Development Bank for the execution of the Ilesa Water Work project at the twilight of that government.
“The facility which totalled $65 million, was structured in such a way that it is provided upon need for any aspect of the project.
“Between 2018 and 2022, the Gboyega Oyetola administration received several billions of Naira from that fund. What the Osun APC minion misread for a fresh loan under Governor Adeleke, was the continuation of the flow of the fund for the Ilesa Water project and other multilateral projects like the NCARES, Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAMP), State Action Business Enabling Reforms(SABER) among others.
“The public will recall that the current administration on inheriting the Ilesa Water project for which the loan was taken undertook a major cleaning up , stopping major corruption and setting the project on a sustainable path of completion and value for money,” it read.
Alimi assured that Adeleke’s administration would not repeat the horror of the reckless borrowing that crippled the state and inflicted untold pain on the people in the past.
“The current government has not taken any fresh loan and has no plan to do so, but the administration is making use of the available resources, assets and liability, to the benefit of the state and its people,” he added.
