The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the State Government has thrown argument over the donation of the Adeleke family to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos.
It would be recalled that the donation of a billion naira was announced to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos in remembrance of the late mother of the Adelekes, the late Easter Adeleke, who was a prominent member of the Church during her life time.
The donation has generated a lot of furore among both the lowly and highly placed members of the society, questioning the rationale behind such squandering of the questionable resources by Governor Adeleke and his siblings at a time that there are many pressing government obligations crying for monetary attention in the state.
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, said everything was morally wrong with the donation of such a huge sum of money on frivolities by Governor Adeleke and his siblings.
Lawal stated that while his party, the APC, is not in anyway opposed to the support of religious groups by any individual(s) or a group of people, it is however, pertinent that such should be done with utmost touch of decency.
He explained further that the timing of the donation while Governor Adeleke is still the chief executive of the state made it to be susceptible to the conclusion by the right-thinking members of the society that the huge donation of the N1 billion was coughed out of the common patrimony of the state.
Lawal who stated that it would interest the people of the state who are the real owners of the state fund of which Governor Adeleke is only its caretaker, to know why it is during the tenure of the governor that it occured to the Adeleke siblings that they should donate the money to their late mother’s church.
He maintained that the development signposts the fact that Governor Adeleke either lacks good and credible advisers or he refused to hearken to the advice of his numerous Advisers which history has it as the only governor parading the highest number of Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants in Nigeria today.
Reacting to the APC allegations, the Spokesperson to the Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed insisted that Governor Adeleke did not donate the said fund and that the donation is not sourced from the state’s treasury.
“The donation of One Billion Naira to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church is a private philanthropic gesture by a world-renowned business mogul, Dr Deji Adeleke which has no link or source with the Osun State government.
“ We seek to put this unnecessary debate to rest by clarifying once again that neither the state government nor the state Governor donated the said One Billion naira to the Lagos church. We add too that the said money is not being sourced from the state treasury. And we conclude by affirming that the philanthropist who made the donation had made even bigger donations in the past and even to the APC government to address the state emergency.”, he explained.
