A former chief press secretary (CPS) to Gboyega Oyetola, immediate past governor of Osun state, Ismail Omipidan, has said that his principal did not take any loan during his tenure.
Omipidan noted that Oyetola inherited debt from the administration of past governor Rauf Aregbesola.
Aregbesola was the governor of Osun stare between 2010 and 2018, after which he was succeeded by Oyetola.
Oyetola lost his bid to seek re-election and Ademola Adeleke was sworn in as Osun governor in November.
Adeleke, on Thursday, December 15, said that his predecessor took N18 billion loan after the July governorship election in the state, adding that Osun state is indebted to the tune of N407.32 billion.
Adeleke also said that Oyetola must explain why the state is owing N76 billion in salaries and pensions despite receiving a N50 billion salary bailout from the federal government.
Omipidan, while reacting to Adeleke’s comment, said that his principal’s administration paid the sum of N97 billion from the debt inherited from the Aregbesola administration, Channels TV reports.
“They only listed when those debts will be liquidated, but they did not list when they were procured,” he said.
“At least, if you have the date when a debt would lapse, you should have the date of when it was procured.
“I’m very sure that they did that deliberately to cover their lies, because if they had provided the date where these debts were sourced, it would have been very clear that none was sourced under Gboyega Oyetola for the four years he spent.
“I can boldly say that for the four years when Oyetola was the governor of Osun state, we did not take any loan facility and these facts are in public domain.
“Is it possible to take a loan without going through the house of assembly? The house of assembly members are there, the speaker is still there, they are all alive so you can cross-check this fact from them.
“The debts they were reeling out were the debts we also inherited from Aregbesola-led administration, from where we even paid N97 billion,” he added.
Meanwhile, Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to Adeleke, on Thursday, said that another $100 million debt was discovered after the governor’s meeting with traditional rulers.
Rasheed said that the data on the state’s debts was released by the accountant-general of the state, who he said was appointed by Oyetola.
The spokesperson added that the state treasury is currently “empty” after the payment of November salary to workers.
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