Oyo APC criticises Makinde, Speaker over controversial N7.6b loan

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyo State chapter, has berated Gov. Seyi Makinde and the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin, over what it called hasty approval of a fresh N7.6 billion loan.

This is contained in a statement issued by the party’s state Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo, and made available to newsmen on Friday, in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Assembly had, on Thursday, approved the request of the governor to take the loan for the upgrade of two farm settlements located in Akufo and Eruwa areas of the state.

The state government had claimed that the loan was borrowed from the CBN by the immediate past administration and that it was not a fresh one.

But, the APC, in the statement, described the action as ‘conspiracy of bad governance’ between the governor and the speaker, adding that the administration had borrowed a total of N17.6 billion in three months.

It wondered why the Assembly gave another express approval for the governor’s request to again borrow the quoted sum three months after a similar request to obtain a N10 billion infrastructural loan was granted.

The party condemned Ogundoyin’s alleged disrespect for the opinions of majority of his colleagues, who had questioned the rationale behind the fresh loan request at the plenary on Thursday.

“The current governor has succeeded in bringing the whole machinery of local government administration to a halt completely and to further demonstrate his resolve to drag the state backward by many years within the shortest period of time.

“We have again been made to see the need for the concerned citizens to beam their searchlight on the PDP administration of Makinde, as financial indiscipline is now the order of the day in the business of government,” it said.

The party said it would not dwell on the futile attempt by Makinde’s aides to change the narratives on the controversial fresh loan, adding the world had realized that the present administration was here to mismanage the state resources and enmesh it debt crisis.

“Without a clear cut action plan, the Makinde administration has made itself a good customer to many financial institutions, as it gets all forms of loans.

“Unfortunately again, most of these loan transactions are done covertly and to the disadvantage of the people of the state,” the party said.

It added that tongues were already wagging on what had become of the whopping N17 billion which came into government’s treasury in the month of June alone.

“Apart from the statutory payment of salaries to government workers, nothing concrete has been done by the PDP government since May 29.

“The orchestrated ‘Light-Up Ibadan City’ project and purchase of 100 security cars have not come to any fruition, even when bogus amount of state funds had been expended on them without any due process,” it said.

The APC said that the state now had a governor who would always singlehandedly design capital projects and approve funds for their execution without any recourse to the state executive council.

It also alleged that the governor had found an ally in the speaker who “overrules his colleagues at will only to dance to his tune.

“It is on record that no significant programme was put in place for the celebration of the nation’s 59th independence anniversary this year because the governor was nowhere to be found,” it said.

The party alleged that Makinde had, in the past three weeks, ruled the state from an unknown destination and that he had commissioned the speaker to approve fresh loan, aimed at revamping two farm settlements closely located in the same federal constituency.

The party urged the state legislature to revisit the matter and act in the overall interest of the entire citizens of the state.

Meanwhile, the state government had, in a separate statement issued by Mr Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, described the approval of the loan as a victory for the people in their pursuit of agricultural sustainability and emancipation.