N100m Goes Into Private Account Each Time Osun Govt Stages Free Train Rides During Festivities, State Chapter Of PDP Alleges

According to a report available

Osun state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Wednesday said each time Governor Rauf Aregbesola organises free train services to transport people to the state during festivities, a sum of N100 millions goes to a private account.

The PDP in a statement issued in Osogbo by Prince Diran Odeyemi, its spokesperson said “it is curious that a struggling government that has failed to meet its statutory obligations of paying workers salary would without bating
eyelids, announced free train from Lagos to Osun as done now to mark Eid El Fitri.”

According to the party, just last year December, during year 2016 budget defence at the floor of Osun State House of Assembly, a director in the state Civil Service openly confessed that about N130 million was spent on free train in December that year alone.

It then urged the rest of the country and the federal government to see what it called hypocrisy, pettiness and fraud that has been going on in Osun state in the last years, and prevail on Governor Aregbesola to desist from act that could further sink the state deeper in the financial quagmire he led it into.

The statement reads: “What could be the interest of Mr. Aregbesola to, rather than pay workers’ full salary, be spending huge sums of money on those coming to the state to celebrate Eid El Fitri and leave the state after 3 days holiday?

“Of what economic importance are those that would rely on free train to come to the state for festivals be for its economy? Who does Ogbeni wants to please with the programme that is largely resources-draining with no positive economic effect?

“We have it on good authority that each time such “freebies” is declared, N100 million is paid into a private account. Osun has been raped into coma already, feeding its carcass to the god that eats only money should be prevented by all stakeholders.

“For government that is cringing under huge financial burden to continue its spendthrift style in the face of lean resources is a solid confirmation of our claims that wrong people are at the helms of affairs of the state at the moment.”

vanguard