By Rotimi Agboluaje

Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, threatened to release new allegations of mismanagement against the Peoples Democratic Party-led (PDP) government in the state.

Reactions had followed the revelation made by former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, about a N50 billion sum, which he claimed was released to Governor Seyi Makinde by the Federal Government.

In response, the state government issued several official statements and conducted media interviews to present its case, despite many analysts and political pundits criticising the governor for failing to disclose the details of the Abuja intervention until now.

In a statement issued in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC regretted that “Governor Makinde lives in a glass house from where he throws stones at the neighbourhood while he constantly seeks to demonise the government at the centre as a result of his penchant for self-aggrandisement and dirty politicking.

“There is no denying the fact that the N50 billion Ibadan Explosion Relief Fund saga has cleared all the doubts about the current PDP government in Oyo being a cesspool of corruption and one which thrives on false narratives and propaganda”.

It is an obvious case of fund mismanagement and insensitivity to the plight of the people, as it affected the victims of the explosion and their community.“

Another sad dimension is the attempt by Governor Makinde to demonise the Tinubu administration rather than appreciate the President for responding to the emergency by providing a whopping sum of money for the purpose of ameliorating the pains of the victims of the disaster.“

It is on record that Governor Makinde blackmailed the late former President Muhammadu Buhari over a consignment of rice brought to the state in 2020 as part of the palliatives to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The governor personally called out the then-President when he claimed some of the bags of rice were contaminated.

“In this current dispensation, Governor Makinde has never deemed it necessary to acknowledge the efforts of the Tinubu administration as being felt in stupendous monthly allocations to the state and 33 local government councils, donations of CNG buses, cars and tricycles as well as periodic provision of various sums of money for the state government to residents.“

So far, the best response from Governor Makinde was his open condemnation of the decision of the Federal Government to remove subsidy on imported petroleum products, while the same governor has been the loudest voice against the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement which granted full financial autonomy to local government councils.

The Guardian Newspaper