Opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) engaged in a war of words on Tuesday over the states finances.
While the APC accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of messing up the finances of the state, the PDP said the governor had been prudently managing the states economy and finance.
In a statement issued by APCs Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, the partys chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, alleged that Governor Adeleke was finding it difficult to discharge statutory functions because of finance mismanagement.
According to Lawal, the governor has run the state aground and is now running from post to pillar for solution to the states financial quagmire without luck.
Lawal said Adeleke had not been able to account for Federal Governments monthly allocations, other statutory incomes and Internally Generated Revenue in the last 10 months.
What went wrong with Governor Adeleke who promised during the campaigns that he was having foreign currencies in abundance?
Could it be that Adelekes calendar is different from the one in the public domain, which indicates that he already exhausted 48 months of his statutory lifeline in 10 months? he queried.
Adeleke lacks empathy, otherwise, he would not still be keeping Federal Governments N2 billion fuel subsidy removal palliative for two months when states, lucky to have caring governments have started to benefit from the largesse.
It is saddening that while some states have been complimenting Federal Governments efforts by providing their own palliatives, Adeleke chose to hoard Osun peoples palliatives for reasons known only to him and his co-travellers.
Governor Adeleke should explain why his administration can no longer remit deductions from workers salaries to appropriate institutions when due, he stressed.
Countering APCs position, Sunday Bisi, PDP Chairman in Osun, said the governor inherited huge debt from the preceding government of the APC.
He said the governor was paying salaries and pension debts promptly, and was delivering on major projects, and so should not be accused of running the state aground.
He argued that anyone leveling allegations of financial mismanagement against the governor was likely a financially illiterate.
Osun PDP government inherited from the APC government a state that was financially wrecked. Yet, Governor Adeleke manages to pay monthly salaries without default till date.
He has paid more than N17 billion out of the N56 billion debts he inherited.
The governor has constructed more than 50km of roads. Several bridges and channeling projects are completed. Free medical surgeries are being conducted on more than 50,000 beneficiaries.
Osuns financial management model is superbly sound.
All over the country, people are asking how Governor Adeleke is so smartly governing despite the financial liabilities. The record of the administration in financial prudence is astounding.
Governor Adeleke is more concerned about stabilising the ship of state.
He rejected the possibility of probing those who plunged the state into its current debt and instead chooses to salvage the states finance and economy, Bisi said.
He warned the APC to desist from its lies so as not to compel the PDP government to revisit its policy on books of the past.
Looters of yesterday risk being unmasked to face the consequences of their maladministration, he stressed.
