Osun PDP wants Senate to probe Gov over N34B bailout fund

The Osun State PDP has urged Governor

In a recent reaction following the Osun Assembly's decision to stop the Senate from probing the governor, the opposition party claimed the move by the state lawmakers to prevent the Senate from probing the utilisation of the funds as a cover-up and an indication that the governor had something he did not want the public to know about the application of the bailout.

PDP spokesperson in the state, Diran Odeyemi, said in a statement on Saturday that it was laughable that the state lawmakers are rising to defend the governor when the Senate was about to probe him on the bailout.

The statement read, “The overfed assembly men said they were ready to probe the utilisation of the funds after the Senate committee had indicated it was visiting the state to check Aregbesola’s book. People should ask the jesters called Osun assembly men, were they not alive when Aregbesola collected bailout funds meant to pay workers for one whole year and he only paid them two months and declared he had exhausted the funds?

“This same Aregbesola had been paying workers half of their statutory take home for over one year, yet Osun Assembly men didn’t see the need to intervene. Aregbesola had ruled Osun without a cabinet for over two years now since he was elected for another term, the lawmakers didn’t raise eyebrow over that.

“The governor also refused to conduct the local government election since the last one held in the state under a PDP administration 10 years ago, yet the state lawmakers saw nothing wrong in all these.

“We remind these idle lawmakers that the bailout collected by Aregbesola is not statutory fund but a special arrangement by the Federal Government to assist salary-defaulting states. So, if the guarantor of the funds, the Federal Government chooses to look into how the funds were expended, no one can stop it.

“Moreover, Aregbesola himself had declared he was ready to give account of how he spent the funds, why is the Osun House of Assembly constituting itself into a stumbling block, with this their stand, they have further exposed themselves as weak and inactive.”

The Osun assembly had declared at a plenary that the Senate lacked the power to probe how Aregbesola applied the bailout.

ALSO READ: Senate moves to probe Osun Gov over bailout

PDP's stand is coming following the party's accusation that Aregbesola fixed part of the funds in some banks and said the governor spent part of the bailout on the ongoing construction of some road projects.