I cleared Osun’s debt before leaving office – Aregbesola

The former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on Saturday, said his administration was free of debt when he left office in 2018.

Aregbesola who is now the Minister of Interior reacted to the statement credited to Bola Oyebamiji, the former Commissioner for Finance under the administration of the immediate past governor, Gboyega Oyetola.

In a statement made available to The PUNCH by his media aide, Mr Sola Fasure, on Saturday, Aregbesola said the two major loans he took while in office have been liquidated, adding, “They were the Sukkuk loans and the other was long-term concessionary facility by the Federal Government which have a long span repayment term.

“The deductions are minimal and they are not deductions that will infringe on the finances of the state.

Reacting to the controversial debt of N18 billion loan collected by the Oyetola-led administration, the minister said, “I will suggest that they look at all the loans and get to the Accountant-General of the state at Abere. I think the Accountant General or the Permanent Secretary (Finance) would have better information because it is the Accountant-General that raised a memo based on the query of Governor Adeleke.

“He is the most knowledgeable about the loans by the state as the custodian of the account of the state. They should count Aregbesola out of it.”

Speaking further, Aregbesola stressed that matter is between the Adeleke and Oyetola administrations because his debts have been liquidated.

“I was not the one that took the N18 billion loan that was taken after the election. Oyetola took some other loans, including salary support from the Federal Government,” he added.

The minister maintained that they caused the problem for themselves, adding, “If Oyetola had set up a transition committee and had cooperated well with the incoming governor after he lost the election, there would have been a smooth change of government.

“They would have compared notes and there would be no rancour. But he (Oyetola) was busy sowing mines on the path of the incoming governor, creating problems for him, and spending money with reckless abandon. What did he do with N18 billion? Now the new government is fighting back. If the new government takes the matter up to the EFCC, there would be problems for the Oyetola administration.

Aregbesola, however, beseeched both Adeleke and Oyetola to leave him out of their problems because out of the three loans he took, two have been liquidated.

Punch