N1billion Church Donation: APC Tackles Osun Governor Adeleke
……s State Govt Denies Wrongdoing
APC questioned the rationale behind the donation, describing it as a “squandering of questionable resources” when many pressing government obligations require attention.
The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed disagreement with Governor Ademola Adeleke’s donation of N1billion to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos, alongside his siblings.
In a statement on Saturday, signed by party chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, the APC criticised the timing of the donation, citing Osun State’s near-insolvency.
Governor Adeleke has meanwhile denied the accusation explaining that there was no link between the donation and the state government.
But APC questioned the rationale behind the donation, describing it as a “squandering of questionable resources” when many pressing government obligations require attention.
While acknowledging the right to support religious groups, Lawal emphasised that such donations should be made with decency and consideration for the state’s financial situation.
The APC described the donation of such a large sum for “frivolities” as morally wrong, sparking widespread criticism from various segments of society.
“It won’t be an overstatement to state that it was from the scarce resources of the Osun State funds that Governor Adeleke used as a mega donation in the remembrance of his mother in a church in Lagos.
“While we consider it needless to comment on the overburdened queer manner of the governor’s comportment in the public which is at variance with his exalted position as number one citizen in Osun State, Governor Adeleke would save us the collective shame of wriggling his frame at the striking of two objects just the way he did at the Cherubim and Seraphim Church where he went to on his donation spree at a time he is yet to state any convincing statement on the N70,000.00 minimum wage for government workers in the state as approved by the Federal Government,” the APC chairman said.
In response to the allegations, Governor Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, denied the claims, stating that the N1 billion donation to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church’s Centenary Endowment Fund was made by Dr. Deji Adeleke, the governor’s elder brother, during a church programme in Lagos.
Rasheed emphasised that the donation was personal and had no connection to the state government.
He also highlighted Dr. Adeleke’s previous donations to the state government during the COVID-19 crisis under the Oyetola administration and to the Federal Government, noting that Governor Adeleke was not in office at those times.
He reiterated that the state government and Governor Adeleke did not make any donations at the Lagos event, and that Dr. Adeleke’s contribution was a personal one.
Rasheed also criticised the opposition for their reaction, suggesting that they were “hallucinating” and had previously made similar unfounded claims about the validation of Osun infrastructure projects by the engineering community.
“At the event in Lagos, neither the state government nor the state governor made any donation. The only donation came from Dr Adeleke who is more than capable of doing so as he had done to APC governments when Mr Oyetola and Muhammadu Buhari were in office.
“The other time, the opposition, shocked by wholesale validation of Osun infrastructure projects by the engineering community, ignorantly lambasted the highly professional and credible COREN/NSE team. Meanwhile, NSE had conducted similar exercises in the APC states of Lagos and Ogun. Isn’t the state APC hallucinating?”
