The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the state Governor Ademola Adeleke of deliberately sabotaging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s numerous fuel subsidy removal palliative programmes to giving it a bad name for ulterior political motives.
According to the Osun State chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, today, there is currently nothing on the ground in the state to justify the huge federal government monthly allocations and series of fuel subsidy removal palliatives that have accrued to the state since May last year.
Lawal observed that Adeleke was always keeping mute each time he collected Federal Government palliatives, ignoring the hues, cries and groans of Osun citizens who also wished to have a taste of the palliatives from Abuja.
He stated that it was wrong, insensitive and wicked of Adeleke to have chosen the warehousing of the palliative food items given to the state by the Federal Government at Cocoa Processing Industry (CPI), Ede, since August to the extent that a sizeable portion of the food items have spoilt and become unwholesome.
According to Lawal, no fewer than 14,000 bags of rice and 3,000 bags of maize were donated to Osun State by the Federal Government to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal, but unfortunately, the state government has mismanaged, hoarded and diverted to serve a petty political purpose.
Lawal asked Adeleke why he had refused to hearken to the outcry of the people of the state who raised their voices on the need for him to distribute the rice and grains until they became spoilt.
He added that from May when the fuel subsidy was removed to December, the federal allocation to the state (both the state government and the 30 LGAs) was N106 billion.
Lawal further said that the average federal allocation to the state in January, February and March of 2023 was N3.6 billion but since the removal of the fuel subsidy, it has increased, leaving the state with a monthly allocation of N8.6 billion in December 2023 alone.
Lawal explained that the Adeleke administration is guilty of misplaced priority of literally digging a gutter while a house is on fire.
In Lawal’s words: “It is a sheer act of insensitivity for Governor Adeleke to be planning the construction of five flyovers and one underground road with N100 billion when metaphorical hunger is working on four legs across the length and breadth of the state.
“Is Governor Adeleke waiting for the people of the state to die of hunger and waiting for their ghosts to ply his proposed N100 billion overhead bridges in some parts of the state?
“Why is it difficult for Governor Adeleke to be open and accountable on the incomes and expenditures of his government transactions knowing full well that the money belongs to the people of the state?
“What has become of the 19 school buses that Adeleke said his government repaired with N25 million?
“What has happened to the FG N2billion palliative grant?
“What has happened to the FG N7 billion palliative intervention?
“What has happened to the Federal Government’s N4.5 billion NG-CARES grant?
“Governor Adeleke should go for a pupillage in Borno State under the APC administration of Governor (Prof) Babagana Umara Zulum, who has been a shining example on how to effectively appropriate people’s money to provide palliatives for them”, Lawal opined.