By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN—The Director General, Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Mr. Adeolu Adeleke, has accused the Oyo State government of plunging the state into a N67 billion debt.

Adeleke, a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly alleged the debt was incurred by the banks on account of a deal that prompted the financial institutions to finance the road expansion projects embarked upon by state government but which are now abandoned.

He said this during an interaction with newsmen in Ibadan, at the weekend.

But, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, said he was proud to say that the state had not borrowed a dime from any bank since it came on board in 2011.

According to Adeleke, one of the banks is being owed N50 billion, while the Ajimobi-led government is indebted to the other by N17 billion.

The N67 billion debt, according to Adeleke, excluded the billions of naira bond already secured by the government and more of which he claimed was currently being sought from financial regulators.

The DG said the figure was part of a preliminary investigation by his party, Accord Party, on the debt profile of the state under the government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi as of June 2014.

Also defending its governorship candidate in the February 28 poll, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyo State said the ancient propaganda style employed by the Accord Party would not work in the elections.

Speaking through its Director of Publicity, Mr. Olawale Shadare, the party argued that “Ladoja and his party use the traditional hunger for news of journalists to pass across his childish propaganda and ill-digested lies. The question journalists should ask him is the name of the so-called banks the state government is owing. It is only journalists whom the profession gives the license to hide the names of sources and important institutions, not desperate politicians. Let him quote the names of the banks and the amounts being owed them so that journalists can go to the banks and cross-check. Even political propaganda has left such infantile level”.

Restating that Ladoja was merely pursuing shadows, the APC said the Accord Party and its leader could not fathom how government could have such huge infrastructural achievements without borrowing a penny from anywhere.

“To underscore the penchant for untruth of the Accord Party, the Oyo State government, in spite of dwindling allocations from the federal government, as at today, has paid the December salaries of workers in the state and is one of the few states of the federation that has done so. Only contractors who have not completed their works are yet to collect full payment,” the party said.

Adeleke also said that nothing other than the profligacy and cronyism embraced by the ruling APC as an article of faith could be responsible for the “yawning abyss of debt” into which the state had been plunged.

He tasked the APC government, which he described as an outgoing administration, to ensure that all its debts were settled so that the “incoming government of Accord Party” would not be battling “avoidable and questionable debt.”

The DG enjoined the civil servants to continue to endure the hardship faced due to the irregularity of their salaries, particularly the December 2014 salaries, stressing that AP would comfort them when elected.