By Lai Mahmood
The immediate past Commissioner for Finance under the Ajimobi administration in Oyo State, Abimbola Adekanmbi, has said that N90 billion debt was left behind for the new government in the state as Governor Seyi Makinde already expended N100 billion in his seven months in office.
This was lashed out by the former commissioner at a programme in Ibadan when he was quizzed to establish the veracity or otherwise of the claim that the Ajimobi-led government mishandled the financial resources of the state while he held sway.
According to him, against the claim by the present government, the debt profile of the state as at the time of the exit of Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi’s administration was N90 billion, stating that the fund was used to execute Ologuneru-Eruwa road and other projects.
Adekanmbi stated that there was no way a sensible public officer who did not want to end in jail would spend public funds recklessly as each account and fund was meant for one project or department, adding that that was the reason it was not abnormal for government to keep and run multiple accounts.
He analysed that it was statutory to run different accounts for revenue, expenditure and investment, apart from the special accounts such as SUBEB, SDG and Urban Flood Management, stressing that he was waiting to see how easy it would be for the present government to run all the accounts as a single account.
The commissioner however debunked the claim that their administration expended N5.2b less than three weeks to the end of their tenure, saying “you can’t withdraw such amount in two to three weeks. EFCC will run after you; Financial Intelligence is also watching.”
Adekanmbi therefore charged the people of the state to start asking questions about the present government’s expenditure of over N100bn in the seven months of the administration as he allegedly claimed that the state funds were already being mismanaged and carted away.
