Outgoing governor of Oyo state, Abiola Ajimobi, has been accused of awarding last minute contracts to family members and friends with just few weeks to the expiration of his tenure.
The allegation was leveled against Ajimobi by the state Publicity Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Akeem Olatunji, who says the governor is siphoning state funds in his last days in office through an alleged contract spree.
Speaking on Saturday, Olatunji corroborated the allegation of Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor-elect, that Ajimobi has awarded a N30 billion contract to create hiccups for the incoming administration.
He said; “We don’t make allegations when there are no evidence. In actual fact, we know that government is a continuum and we are not trying to stampede the incumbent government. Nevertheless, due process has to be followed in whatever is done. For the governor to just wake up one day and start to dash out contracts to cronies is more or less a way of siphoning the funds of the state.
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“About 33 excavators were recently bought with almost N10bn for local governments. The needs of each local government vary and so the state government should not have embarked on such project now. This was at a time when many of the local governments are finding it difficult to pay their workers’ salary as well as those of the retirees. We believe that government should be able to prioritize people’s needs.
He said a situation where more than N50bn projects have been awarded within the last two months calls for worry. “When workers and retirees are being owed, where did they get the funds to execute those projects? If it were an ongoing project that funds were released for, no one will suspect any foul play.
“About N34bn excess crude fund belonging to the local government is in the Heritage Bank. This is not the time to spend such money anyhow because the incoming government needs to have something to fall back on. When government is winding up like this, the whole thing becomes bazaar with 10 per cent, 20 per cent being collected as kickback. That is why we are warning civil servants not to engage themselves in any transaction that can implicate them after the transition,” he added.