05-04-2019, 04:57 PM
NEWS
Gov. Ajimobi under fire for allegedly awarding contracts to friends, family members
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The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Abiola Ajimobi, the outgoing Governor of the State, of syphoning state funds in his last days in office through an alleged contract spree to his friends and family members.
Akeem Olatunji, the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, made the accusation in an interview with the New Telegraph.
He also corroborated the allegation of Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor-elect, that Ajimobi has awarded a N30billion 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 syphoning the funds of the state. About 33 excavators were recently bought with almost N10bn for local governments.
“Aside from this, a situation whereby within two months, more than N50billion projects were awarded by the government calls for worry. Has the government completed the projects on ground? 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 N34billion 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 a bazaar with 10 per cent, 20 per cent being collected as kickbacks. That is why we are warning civil servants not to engage themselves in any transaction that can implicate them after the transition.”