Osun Not Among States Indicted By Icpc For Diverting Bail-out Funds – Aregbesola

SAN FRANCISCO, May 02, (THEWILL)  – Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has insisted that the state is not among those indicted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, to have diverted bail-out funds, revealing that the anti-graft agency had written to him to clarify the matter.

The Governor, who spoke on Sunday while addressing workers at the Osogbo township stadium during this year’s May Day event, argued that there was no truth in the rumour that Osun was among the states indicted by the anti graft body.

According to him, “I want to also assure you, contrary to the insinuation being made by our traducers, who claimed we diverted the bailout funds, that nothing of such happened. This is the concoction of a mischievous opposition and their media conspirators.

“The ICPC never indicted us. Other media agencies reported the ICPC accurately that the data it published on disbursement of bailout funds by states was as at October last year and this was given to them by us. How could we then have indicted ourselves?

“I am happy that ICPC has cleared the air. We demanded for N64.3 billion to cover outstanding salaries, pension and gratuities up till June 2015 for the state workers and N23.8 billion to cover the salaries, pension and gratuities for the local government workers for the same period.

“However, we got N25.8 billion for state and N9.1 billion for local government, totaling N34.9 billion. So, we can all see that this is a far cry from what we needed and asked for. We got this far only because of exceptional financial engineering, extreme prudence and commendable cooperation of Labour. I must also let you know that there is no way we could have diverted the funds, knowing that it was not sufficient for our needs in the first place.”

He however assured the workers that the worst was over and that the state will soon be out of the woods following governors’ fruitful meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been very concerned about welfare of the states.

Aregbesola also showered praises on the workers for their loyalty, dedication, hard work and their exhibition of the fear of God despite the challenging period being faced in the state.