The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised alarm that the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led government has concluded plans to use the local government funds as collateral to secure a N300 billion loan from Unity Bank.
The APC in a statement by its state chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, said Governor Adeleke and members of his kitchen cabinet on Monday invited all the illegal local government council chairmen purportedly elected under the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) popularly known as ‘Sit-at-home council chairmen’, the Heads of Local Government Administration(HLAs), Directors of Administration(DAs) and Heads of Finance(HFs) in all the 30 local government council areas in the state and the Area Office to a meeting at the State Secretariat, Abere, Osun State, where the intention of the state government to borrow the money was disclosed to the top local government career officers.
“Further information revealed that each of the local government council areas would be made a collateral for the N300 billion loan being sought by Governor Adeleke out of which promises to handsomely take care of the co-operative council senior career officers were made.
“It would be recalled that since Governor Adeleke lost the series of legal battles on the control of the local government council areas through the judgements of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, he has been trying all manner of sinister and crude ways to control the councils through the backdoor without luck.
“There’s no justifiable reason for the Adeleke-led government to go to such route of deliberately and wickedly plunging the state into avoidable debts which generations unborn would be made liable for its repayment.
“The unsavoury development is tantamount to Governor Adeleke’s pungent abhorrence for the rules of law since it is known to all and sundry that the highest court in the land has made a pronouncement, granting an unconditional autonomy for the administration of the local government councils nationwide.
“We implore all the discerning minds in the society to condemn the illegal activity of the Governor Adeleke-led administration to use the local government councils which the Supreme Court has deprived him of having an authority on as a collateral to borrow a huge and staggering amount of N10 billion per local government amounting to N300 billion.
“The management of the Unity Bank Plc too should be wary of the fact that it is a settled law that the states don’t have such authority on the local government councils and that any of such deals is an illegality which is not binding either now or in the foreseeable future.
“It should also resonate in the memory of the management of the Unity Bank Plc that the recognised council executives in Osun State today are the Court of Appeal APC reinstated local government council chairmen who have been carrying out their statutory duties diligently for the past one year.”
The APC warned the management of Unity Bank against any dealings with the state government, while calling on stakeholders to call the governor to order.
“It is necessary to warn the management of Unity Bank Plc that any contract entered into by them with the illegal council chairmen is a nullity as the reinstated APC chairmen are the only ones known to the law of the land.
“Governor Adeleke should be called to order by the stakeholders of the state and be made to understand that the state is not part of his family estates which he could be administering through his whims and caprices but the law of the land.”
Reacting to the development, Spokesperson to the Governor, Olawale Rasheed described the allegation as a way of diverting the attention from the “hijacking of N250bn” local government funds.
Rashed said the government has not unholy agreement with any financial institution in the country.
He said, “Osun APC and the UBA are already facing criminal trial over their mishandling of Osun LG Fund. Those who diverted and squandered Osun LG fund will surely be brought to book. Justice will surely be served.
“The mob occupation of the council secretariats and the diversion of LG funds into pockets of cronies are major albatross for Osun APC and its chieftains. Osun voters and the law won’t spare all those involved. Aside legal accountability, Osun voters will electorally punish APC impostors and illegals inflicting hardship on Osun grassroots.
“Osun state government under Governor Adeleke is not in the business of criminal deals with financial institutions like the Osun APC. Mr Governor is fixated on completely cleaning up the fiscal, infra and social mess inherited from the Oyetola / ABO administration”, the statement from the governor’s office noted.
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