Oyo Govt Owes N70bn Debt – Accord Party

Oyo Govt Owes N70bn Debt – Accord Party

The director general, Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Rt Hon Adeolu Adeleke, yesterday alleged that the Oyo State government has mortgaged the future of the state by plunging it into a N67 billion debt.

The debt was said to be owed two third-generation banks.

The former speaker of the state House of Assembly, in a statement, said the debt was incurred on account of a deal that warranted the financial institutions undertaking to finance the road expansion projects embarked upon by the state government but which are now abandoned.

He explained that one of the banks (name withheld) is being owed N50billion, while the Ajimobi-led government is indebted to the other to the tune of N17billion.

According to him, the N67billion debt excludes the billions of naira bond already secured by the government, more of which is currently being sought from financial regulators.

The Accord Party DG said the figure was part of a preliminary investigation by his party on the debt profile of the state under the government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi as at June 2014.

But in a swift reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyo State chapter said that the ancient propaganda style employed by the Accord Party will not work in the 2015 elections.

The party chairman, Chief Akin Oke, in a statement in reaction to a claim by the Accord Party that its government was owing N67billion, said “Ladoja and his party used the traditional hunger for news of journalists to pass across his childish propaganda and ill-digested lies. The question journalists should ask him is the names of the so-called banks the state government is owing.

“It is only journalists that the profession gives the license to hide the names of sources and important institutions, not desperate politicians. Let him quote the names of the banks and the amounts being owed them so that journalists can go to the banks and cross-check. Even political propaganda has left such infantile level,” said the APC.

Source: Leadership News