The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that Governor Rauf Aregbesola diverted N20 billion out of the N35 billion bailout received from the federal government.
Diran Odeyemi, PDP’s director, media and strategy in Osun state, alleged the N20 billion was paid to a contractor, Slava Yediteppe, handling one of the road projects in the state.
Odeyemi faulted the alleged pay out given the backlog of workers’ salaries and pensions arrears owed by the state.
Odeyemi further alleged the total bailout had earlier been fixed in two banks before it was recalled and the lump sum paid to the contractor.
“We have it on good authority that the payment was effected last week Thursday and we have noticed that the contractor has returned to site with its men and equipment within 24 hours as requested by the governor.
“Much as we believe the road project is ideal, we wonder why an inflated road contract awarded at N1 billion per kilometre has suddenly become the priority of Governor Aregbesola at this particular period of nine months unpaid salary if not because of some under current deals to siphon funds and shortchange the people of Osun state.
“This perhaps is the reason why the governor said he would only pay half of March salary for workers at a meeting he held with them last week.” The PDP urged President Mohammadu Buhari to prevail on Aregbesola to pay the workers and pensioners and not to waste time on screening the payees.
“Having spent over N500 million for biometric screening of the state workforce in 2013 which led to a monthly payment of N50 million to a Lagos based consultant to undertake direct payment of workers salaries since then, we wonder why another screening is being done in 2015 by another Lagos-based consultant. All these are the reasons why Osun State is in debt and could not perform,” he said.
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