Oyo PDP, Ajimobi trade words over N19bn refund

Posted by admin Oyo, State News Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Oyo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday revealed that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), government of Governor Abiola Ajimobi has demanded from the Federal Government the refund of N19 billion the Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala spent on the construction of federal roads in Oyo State.

The party said the request for the money had finally vindicated governor Alao-Akala’s prudent and judicious management of the state resources and tasked the new regime to tell the people of the state what it intended to do with it.

The party’s Director of Media and Strategy, Dr. Morohunkola Thomas, in a statement in Ibadan yesterday, noted that while the money was spent by the Akala administration to construct new roads in the state, among them, the Molete-Queens Cinema Road, the Ibadan Circular Road, the Iwo Road -Olodo Expressway, Ilesha-Ibaruba Road, Igana-Iwerele Road , the ACN falsely misled the public in believing that the public fund was not judiciously used by Akala.

But, the state government, in a reaction by the governor’s spokesman, Festus Adedayo dismissed the PDP’s statement as an idle distraction, vowing not to join words with the opposition party. Morohunkola, in the PDP statement had said: “For Ajimobi to turn round to claim this money without acknowledging the wise judgment of Alao-Akala, put a moral burden on the governor. This is a vindication of the PDP-government’s prudence. It is the vindication of an administration that engaged in the up-grading of public infrastructure without recourse to loans. This ACN-government must acknowledge this sacrosanct fact.”

He urged the Ajimobi-administration to pursue the release of the money with zeal, and to spend the money judiciously and “tell the Oyo State people what they intend to achieve with the money.” But Adedayo, in his reaction said: “The attention of the Oyo State Government has been drawn to the idle talk of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) concerning an alleged application for refund of N19 billion from the Federal Government on road projects done in the state.

“The government of Oyo State is composed of very busy personnel for whom their precious time is akin to gold and which they cannot waste on bandying words with a party that was kicked out of office by the people of the state, just a couple of months ago, for gross incompetence and massive allegations of tampering with their collective patrimony.”

-Sunwp_posts