Former Head of Service of Osun, Segun Akinwusi, was on Friday told to exhibit some degree of decency and honesty in the figures he advertises on revenues accruing to the state and stop deliberate falsehood against the government.
The Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Office of the Governor said Akinwusi has pitiably turned himself to a laughing stock in the estimation of right-thinking people when within a spate of weeks, he accused the Rauf Aregbesola administration of receiving N862 billion and less than two months after, came down to N317 billion.
While reacting to the various allegations leveled against the Government of Aregbesola at a meeting held in Ile Ife on Thursday which was organised by defeated candidates of the PDP in Osun, Senator Iyiola Omisore, candidate of the Accord Party, Niyi Owolade and Segun Akinwusi who contested on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, the Bureau said it amounted to hypocrisy, ignorance and sheer mischief for Akinwusi, Omisore and others behind the meeting in Ife to continue to advertise outrageous figures as revenues to the state.
“What is most baffling and shameful is that the figures which these individuals willfully advertise either as financial resources that accrued to Osun within four years or the debt portfolio of the state are facts that in the public domain.
“where then do they derive this strong commitment to falsehood? At their conspiratorial meeting in Ife on Thursday which they prefer to call a summit, they all said again that the state got N317 billion in four years, about N111 billion off the mark of what the state got.
The Bureau in its statement signed by the Director, Semiu Okanlawon, said, “Elder Segun Akinwusi is inconsistent and that is highly nauseating considering the fact that he rose to become the Head of Service of Osun.
“In May, he raised a false alarm through his party, SDP that Aregbesola should account for N846bn he had collected as allocation in the last four years.
“The same Akinwusi yesterday said Aregbesola had collected N317 in four years. Which one does he want Nigerians to believe?
“The facts that are verifiable state that Osun got from the federation account N177 billion and when you add the unprecedented about N27 billion as internally generated revenue in the same period to that, you get the N204.”
The Bureau said for the opposition to continue to deceive Nigerians that Osun is indebted to the tune of N400 billion is the height of irresponsibility.
“Recently, the Debt Management Office under the presidency came out to put the total debts of states at over N600 billion. How then do they explain the allegation that Osun alone is indebted to the tune of N400 billion? ,” the Bureau asked.
“If Osun is just one of the 36 states of the federation, how then can the mischief makers justify Osun being responsible for N400 billion out of this?
“Even if all the banks in Nigeria come together, can they afford to give just one state, a single entity, loans to the tune of this magnitude?”
The Bureau urged Nigerians to see through the lies of these opposition elements insisting that all their agenda is to distract the government.
The Bureau also said it is saddening the zeal with which the sponsors of the hate campaigns against Aregbesola want to capitalise on the painful economic crisis in Nigeria to misinform the people.
“Workers in Osun are aggrieved over delay in salaries which they were not used to because Aregbesola insisted all must be paid by 25th or 26th of every month which is understandable. That was the culture before economic storm affecting Nigeria set in.
“No government will ever be happy seeing itself owing workers and this much the workers themselves know. Clearly, it is the wish of those who have seen this unfortunate development for which the government is struggling hard to put behind it that this never ends.
“If these selfish individuals are working in the interests of Osun and the workers, they would be prepared to join hands with the government in finding solutions and not see it as opportunity to bring it down.”
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