The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke for performing woefully in the last three months of being at helms of affairs in the State.
The APC described Adeleke’s 100 days as uneventful, hellish, displeasing, nasty, distasteful, wicked, unsavoury and unpalatable as humongous funds to the tune of N90billion accrued to the state’s coffers were lavishly spent and unaccounted for in the last three months.
Addressing the press conference on Wednesday, 8 March, 2023, at the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Office, Osogbo, the State Acting Chairman, Hon. Tajudeen Lawal bemoaned Adeleke’s administration, attributing his administrative woes to a ‘proverbial snake that passes through atop a rock without any significant sign of a passage.’
Lawal noted how Adeleke has been abysmally managing the meagre resources of the state on frivolities saying what the state had received in the last three months was enough to build sustainable infrastructural development capable of sustaining the state for the next four years.
According to him, apart from the regular FAAC totalling N15 billion that the Adeleke’s administration had received, due to the diligent administration of the State by the immediate past Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the State government had equally received about N11 billion from Siftas; N5 billion from NG CARES and N6.7 billion Federal Government parastatal tax liability respectively in the last three months.
Lawal revealed that the Adeleke led administration had in the last three months received another N3.2 billion Nigeria for Women project; N4.9 billion State Ease of Doing Business Reforms among others, aside from the N14 billion left in the kitty by the Oyetola administration totaling over N60 billion.
The State APC Acting Chairman further alleged the Adeleke’s administration of mismanaging and misappropriating a total sum of N30 billion that accrued to the coffers of 30 Local Government Areas and Ife-East Area Office within the last 100 days of administering the affairs of the State.
Lawal who vilified Adeleke for running a dubious administration said the embattled governor had not displayed to the people that he is focused as ‘he has been operating like a bull in the China shop in order to feign seriousness.’
He described Adeleke’s scorecard across sectors of the economy as a monumental failure as being attested to with the issuance of many disputatious, ignoble, obnoxious, unpopular and highly controversial executive orders among which was the one that he used to humiliate three already crowned monarchs by asking them to stay away from their palaces without any justifiable reason.
“It will be pedestrian and monochromatic to talk about the Adeleke promised intervention in the primary health projects across the state and sinking of boreholes in each of the 332 wards across the state as a random investigation of the same, like others, has shown that they are only a mirage and delusion which are only existing in the imagination of the sacked governor and his co-travellers.
“The list of such fraudulent projects which Adeleke has slated for commissioning is legendary! The most dubious of the superfluous projects is the N16 billion so called Digital Economy with no clear cut understanding of what the administration wants to spend N16 billion on.
“We want to state clearly here for the knowledge of the people of the state that the so-called Osun Tech Revolution project that Adeleke inaugurated with fanfare three days ago is a scam skillfully orchestrated to swindle the state as it isn’t a new project. It was Oodua Infraco that was given its approval by the President Buhari Muhammed administration which had earlier approached the government of Oyetola for the approval of the government right of way which was joyously granted free of charge as it was found out that it would be beneficial to the people of the state. It was for lack of nothing tangible to showcase that is making Adeleke to fraudulently role out the drums, counting same as part of his achievements under the 100 days of his administration.
“The telemedicine that Adeleke was busy talking about is like building something on nothing as majority of the inhabitants of the state are ruralites who cannot afford internet-compliant telephone sets. How will this set of people access telemedicine? The only way of taking care of the health of the rural people is by strengthening primary health care system.
“It is on record that the Oyetola administration succeeded in making available functional primary healthcare delivery system adequately equipped with drugs and manpower whom Adeleke sacked. The telemedicine stuff by Adeleke is a mere political jamboree dubiously designed to siphon the state of fund which could be said to be dead on arrival.
“The project is a scam as a certain level of physical contact is needed for observation and inspection in order to achieve effective healthcare service delivery.
“Another programme that is not worthy of being paraded as an achievement of any government that is worth its salt just the way the Adeleke administration is shamelessly doing is medical outreach. Haba Mr Governor! This is too elementary to be listed by a serious government as an achievement. It is like leaving leprosy and treating ringworm. It is another jamboree designed to score a cheap political point with a motive to scam the people of the State,” Lawal added.
While lampooning the incumbent Governor for running the economy of the state aground, Lawal said it is disheartened to know that within three months of Adeleke’s inglorious tenure, over 1,500 teachers and volunteers of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) employed by his predecessor were diabolically sacked for no just cause.
“Adeleke also sacked 500 health workers when there were no enough number of the required health staff in the state. Adeleke has been using political hoodlums to torment, harass, maim and kill members of the opposition APC members before, during and after the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“Within the period under review, the embattled governor succeeded in dissolving the age-long National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state and promptly and surprisingly replaced them with handpicked and heavily compromised Park Managers under the leadership of a notorious and daredevil political thug who hails from Osogbo.
“The sacked governor in a similar manner also dissolved the O’Meal operators and forcefully withdrew official cars from the Iyaloja-General of the state and other Iyalojas (market women leaders) across the state.
“It is still fresh in the memory of the Ijesa communities how Adeleke acting out of victimisation, oppression and vindictiveness stopped the operation of the Ilesa University (IU) established by the administration of Oyetola despite the fact that the elated Ijesa people had contributed and donated handsomely for the take-off of the university. He killed the dreams of so many decades among the Ijesa people. It is also worth recalling that the $106 million Ilesa Water Project has also been stopped by Adeleke for no reason.
“The latest of the atrocities perpetrated on the opposition APC members by Adeleke in the state which has been securing negative reportage for the state in the media is the use of political thugs to forcefully win the last presidential and national elections for all the candidates of his party, the PDP. Before, during and after the elections, the whole state was heavily militarized with the PDP thugs who maimed, assaulted, attacked, harassed and killed no fewer than 30 members of our party.
“Adeleke embarked on the militarization and thuggerization of the elections in order for his party to win the elections so as as to give a fraudulent claim of the popularity of his party and subsequently justify the over-voting affirmation against him as adjudged by the tribunal. But funny enough, his lack of legal-know-how is blocking his reasoning to comprehend the fact that there is no nexus between justice and emotion.
“Let me state here unequivocally that we are not unaware of some of the sharp practices of the Adeleke administration among which has been fraudulently laying a claim to the execution of some of the projects that were executed by his predecessor in order to hoodwink and impress the unsuspecting and innocent members of the society”, Lawal added.
Responding to some of the questions asked by the journalists, the former Commissioner for Works, Engr. Remi Omowaiye said the incumbent Governor had proved his incompetence, incapability and lack of political and administrative prowess by his dubious manner of running the affairs of the State in the last three months.
Omowaiye who called on the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to come to the State and beam their searchlight into the financial impropriety being perpetrated by the Adeleke’s administration warned Adeleke to be circumspect and guarded in the way that he dips his hand into the public kitty ‘as any fund found out to have been spent by him without due process shall attract statutory sanction on the day of the reckoning which is fast approaching.’
“For instance, it is a common knowledge that the immediate past Governor Adegboyega Oyetola continued the Osogbo -Ikirun-Kwara boundary road as a sum of N1billion was released to the contractor, thus, any claim by Adeleke to have attributed the continuation of the road to his government was not only a scam but fraudulent.
“It is an insult on the collective psyches of Osun people for Adeleke to say that he wants to introduce telemedicine where several health workers were sacked for political reason”, Omowaiye said.
