Alleged L.G. Funds Diversion: Rights Group Set to Re-drag Aregbesola Before EFCC Over ‘N600billion Fraud’

As Adeleke says Aregbesola was a fail Governor in office

Failure of the anti-graft body to begin the prosecution of former Governor of Osun State,Mr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as widely requested and reported recently in the media, the rights group under the aegis of Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice(CHRSJ) has concluded plan to re-drag Mr. Aregbesola before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to begin the criminal prosecution of the Interim National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress(ADC) over alleged diversion of Local Government and State funds for period of eight(8) years of his administration in the State to the tune of N600billion.

According to the leadership of the group that visited the Ibadan Zonal office
of the anti-graft body recently to ascertain the level of action on the subject matter, where they were told to re-write the petition to the authority of the body in order to begin the criminal prosecution of Aregbesola over the alleged financial crime totalling over N600 billion.

The group insisted that during the tenure of Aregbesola as Governor of Osun State, all the funds accrued to the State Government cover then and particularly, that of the Local Government funds were misappropriated by the Aregbesola and his Commissioners for Finance and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Wale Bolorunduro and Kolapo Alimi (the current Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment) respectfully.

Earlier, the State Government under the present administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has described the then Aregbesola administration as wicked government that inflicted pains and pangs on the people of the State,noting that Osun masses were yet to forget the sordid and evil records of Aregbesola as a Governor of the State.

Governor Adeleke through his Spokesperson,Mallam Olawale Rasheed, castigated Aregbesola as “a man who left a legacy of huge state debt, half salary, scam tablets and several fanciful, inflated, uncompleted projects”, describing his tenure as “the worst in Osun history”.

It was also disclosed that the group would soon write the letter to the anti- graft agency as requested to begin the prosecution of Aregbesola without further delaying, alleging Aregbesola and his cohorts of diverting the Local Government allocations accrued to the State between January 2011 to December 2014, to the tune of N300billion.

Aregbesola who governed the State between the 2010 – 2018, was dragged before the anti-graft agencies for misappropriation of different funds accrued to the State from federation account and particularly,the Local Government funds through the phantom projects claimed to be carried out on behalf of the local government in the State then.

CHRSJ insisted that other sources of income accrued to the State Government and that of Local Government under Aregbesola then, including; Excess Crude Oil Fund,Sure-P Fund, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Fund, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Fund,Value Added Tax(VAT) Fund, Ecological Fund, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs now SDGs) Fund, and loans from local commercial banks and International financial institutions including; SUKUK funds.

Upon all these allocations that accrued to the State under Aregbesola for period of four years of his first term in office from the Federation Account amounting to over N600billion, Aregbesola then still plunged the State into the debt regime to the tune of N500 billion which makes the State not to pay its workforce including workers and retirees alike for the period of eight months and also 34 months half salaries and pensions which became the burden of successful governments.

It would be recalled that CHRSJ which was the leading group comprises of Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State( CSCEOS) under the leadership of Late Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman(aka Revolutionary Alfa),had earlier written different petition letters to the anti- graft agency with convincing tangible evidences,requesting for immediate prosecution of Aregbesola after leaving office as a Governor of Osun State in 2018 due to the expiration of immunity of his exalted office then.

This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the CHRSJ’s Deputy General Secretary(DGS), Comrade Abiola Ganiyu (Dove) and copies were made available to newsmen on Monday, maintained that Aregbesola had not shown any prudence in the management of the State and local government resources to the State while serving as governor of the State.

The statement recalled that Aregbesola was a fail Governor during his administration in the State by plunging the State into the financial quagmire for period of eight years of his government which only successive administration safe the State from total collapsing, saying that Aregbesola administration failed woefully by mismanaging all the resources allocated to the State at the period under review.

The statement, therefore,stated that Aregbesola lacks moral justification to condemn any government in office today by putting himself forward to be a leader of any political party to choose a leader for Osun State nay Nigeria.