Osun LG Imbroglio: State Assembly alleges diversion of N50bn, warns APC ‘reinstated’ Excos
By Richard Akintade, Osogbo
Osun State House of Assembly have alleged that about N50billion from the local government area allocations of the state has been diverted by the reinstated council executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has exposed the grassroots to deterioration and causing hardship.
The Assembly, while addressing newsmen by the Speaker, Hon Adewale Egbedun, at the lawmaker complex, held that the alleged actions of the APC executives have further destabilised governance at the grassroots.
Egbedun, reiterated that the Assembly, by the provision of law, has oversight and legislative powers over 30 local government areas of Osun State.
The Speaker, highlighted that N25million was paid to each of the reinstated chairmen, N12 million paid to vice-chairmen, N10 million to 332 councillors, N130 million to selected traditional rulers, and N13billion to a law firm.
The law maker, also alleged that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, and the United Bank for Africa (UBA) connived to make the diversion easy for the reinstated council executives.
Reaffirming the illegality of forceful occupation of council secretariats by tenureless politicians, the Assembly condemned the callousness of the APC cronies and the minister, lamenting that “not one naira has been paid in the last 12 months as salaries of local workers by these illegal APC chairmen: primary school teachers – zero ; nurses and other healthcare workers – zero; local government civil servants – zero; traditional rulers not favored by Gboyega Oyetola – zero; retirees – zero.
“Any bank that releases Local Government funds on the instructions of unauthorised persons, regardless of who issued such instructions, acts unlawfully and exposes itself and its officers to criminal liability. Illegal disbursement of public funds is fraudulent. It is not banking practice. It is not political discretion. It is a crime.
“The House therefore warns the UBA in very clear terms that all illegal disbursements of Osun State LG funds, whether purportedly authorised by Mr Gboyega Oyetola or any other individual, will be fully recovered and treated as deliberate complicity in a financial crime. All the funds that UBA has disbursed so far with the alleged illegal instructions of Mr Oyetola is a gift to him and cannot be deducted from Osun State LG accounts”, Osun legislatures stressed.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, has been emphatically exonerated from the allegations levelled by the Osun State House of Assembly, as his Special Adviser, Dr Bolaji Akinola, described the Assembly’s claims as fabricated and malicious. This is as Dr Akinola reaffirmed that all local governments in Nigeria have financial autonomy, and are beyond the control of any person or entity, including the state government.
Akinola said, the attempt to link Dr Oyetola to the administration or disbursement of local government funds was reckless propaganda designed to distract the public from the state government’s own failures and ongoing legal battles. He stressed that the Minister has no constitutional or statutory role in local government finance and has neither issued directives to banks nor interfered in the running of local councils.
Similarly in his reaction, the Chairman of the Osun Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Osun chapter, Hon. Abiodun Idowu, said that the Assembly lacks proper knowledge of governance at the grassroots, urging them to seek updates from Governor Ademola Adeleke rather than feeding the public with lies.
