The Ondo State government, on Monday, challenged the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to substantiate all the allegations against the state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, and his immediate family.
This is just as the state government promised not to reduce its work force despite the prevailing economic challenges confronting the state and the country
The state government in a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, called on the PDP to provide evidence to back up its allegations and forward them to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
Ojogo who accused the opposition party of feeding the public with fake information describe the PDP steps as an attempt to smear the image of the present administration in the state, the governor and his family.
Ojogo, however, dared the PDP to publish the details of the alleged companies belonging to the member of the Akeredolu’s family and report to the anti graft agency, EFCC.
He said: “We challenge PDP to publish the names of the Directors of those companies as well as the names of those companies.
“This response in respect of the PDP’s latest misadventure mistaken for opposition is not to glorify the rudderless camp; it is to counsel the seemingly disorganised ilk and for the sake of general public at the mercy of PDP’s disingenuous misinformation.
“Their assertions in respect of 13 companies they claimed were registered by the Governor’s family in 2017 without evidence exposes the juveline and pedestrian composure of the PDP. It is sheer waste of precious media space to assert without evidence to prove.
“On the alleged expenditure of N500,000,000 by the Ondo State Ministry of Information on the Countdown Show to herald 2022, it’s not just laughable but presents the PDP as most unserious.
“The inconsistency in their lies is legendary as their first release had indicated N200,000,000 in respect of same subject.
“The public deserves to know more. Therefore, PDP must hurry to report this to the EFCC for investigation.
“While it is clear that the insidious naked dance of the PDP manifests the height of idleness and political depression, the party’s persistence in the display of uncanny posture on the path of unbelievable lies calls to question whether or not PDP respects the Ondo State public at all. No serious public takes such beer parlour talks seriously.”
Meanwhile, Ojogo maintained that the state government would not sack or reduce its staff strength despite the prevailing economic challenges confronting the state and the country.
Ojogo while giving the analysis of the state monthly expenditure profile said the state government had been augmenting the shortfall from the Federal Government allocation.
He said the state government officials and the organised labour sit down every month to decide the mode of payment, saying government has been able to meet up its financial obligations to workers largely due to its fiscal discipline and unshaken commitment to the welfare of workers.
According to him, the monthly allocation has been less than N2.4bn in the last three months with VAT has been between N1.8bn and N1.9bn, while mineral exchange has been about N1.7bn.
He explained that the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) had dropped sharply since the era of COVID-19 in 2020 while the compulsory deductions from past administrations’ loans are paid as at when due, saying “for instance, we just defrayed the last administration’s Bond five months ago.”
Giving the analysis, he said the Core Civil Service received N1.6bn, Tescom N1.3bn, State Pension N950m, Judiciary N170m and the state owned newspaper, Hope Newspaper receive N10m as subvention.
He said: “the subvention to the four tertiary institutions in the state is N520m, the Teaching hospital N170m, Ad Hoc staff N35m while the state pay N200m as gratuity, and N250m for OSOPADEC and N193m for leave.”
The Statutory Directors in the Ministry ought not to be more than six, considering the number of departments; but there are 220 Directors on a monthly pay of not less than N250,000.
“The Local Government staff gulp N1.3b, SUBEB N700m, while local government Pension is about N980m and monthly salary wage of Political Office holders is less than N100m.”
He however said, we will rather evolve ingenious means to weather the storm than sacking the workers in the state, we wont sack the local government staff or any other worker in the state
