The Labour Party (LP) in Ogun State has accused the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, of paying a sum of N500million on a controversial N7bn loan the governor claimed to have obtained through his friends said to be Managing Directors of banks.
Gov Abiodun had said he obtained a N7bn loan to pay salaries of Ogun State government workers for the month of May, a day after his inauguration; alleging that his predecessor, Ibikunle Amosun, left an empty treasury.
The N7bn loan has generated controversies among indigenes and politicians in the state, some of whom claimed that Abiodun erred by obtaining the loan without the approval of Ogun State House of Assembly, while also asking him to disclose the interest paid on the loan.
PREMIER NEWS also reported the immediate past Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State, Mr Adewale Oshinowo, as taking a swipe at Gov. Dapo Abiodun for claiming that his predecessor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, left behind an empty treasury in the state.
But the Ogun State chapter of the Labour Party, through its Chairman, Comrade Abayomi Arabambi, said that Abiodun had paid back the loan with an interest of N500m; which is 7.14 per cent of the loan.
Arabambi, in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Friday, claimed that the present administration, after receiving the handover note from its predecessor, deliberately refused to inform the masses about how much was in the treasury when it came on board, despite calls from the public to do so.
This, the Labour Party said, was to pave way for what it termed the “illegal N7b loan”.
According to Arabambi, “Abiodun obtained the loan fraudulently so as to use the N500m interest to offset part of the debts he owes the Federal Government as one of those indicted in the oil subsidy scam and to make up for the money he spent on his campaign.”
The Labour Party Chairman said Abiodun “is on autopilot” as “he does not know what he is doing”.
He added that Abiodun’s government had been ‘kidnapped’ by his sponsors who he identified as former governors Segun Osoba and Gbenga Daniel; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole; former Senator Buruji Kashamu and others; adding that “they hold him by the throat as he runs to them everyday before making decisions”.
“Gov Dapo Abiodun now sees Ogun State as his personal property, obtaining a N7b loan without recourse to the house of assembly and the Debt Management Office.
“I am telling you, he has paid back N7.5b for the loan two weeks after, when money came into the coffers of the state. He only took the money so as to use the N500m interest to offset part of his debts and to pay back the money he spent on his campaign. That is wrong, illegal and criminal in nature.
“How will a governor whose friends could not bail out when he was indicted in fuel subsidy scam, claim he called these same friends to obtain a loan of N7b within 48 hours in office? This governor is qualify for impeachment by the House of Assembly. This government in Ogun State is corrupt. I don’t believe he borrowed any money from any bank, it was just an arrangement to pay back his debt. The N500m interest is nothing but fraud. This government is fraudulent.
“Gov Abiodun does not know what he was doing. Though he has confessed by his own mouth in two churches that he didn’t plan to be a governor, and that’s the danger that is inherent in what we are facing today in Ogun. Abiodun’s government has been kidnapped by his sponsors”, he stated.
The Labour Party further called on the Governor to resign or be impeached by the Ogun State House of Assembly.
Meanwhile, efforts to get Governor Abiodun’s reaction to the allegations by Arabambi, through his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, proved abortive as a text message sent to his phone was yet to be replied at the time of filing this report.
