Ibadan North Federal Constituency By-election: His Imperial Excellency Is On The Prowl, Desperately Searching For Campaign Funds// Sola Abegunde
About a couple of weeks ago, Governor Seyi Makinde submitted a supplementary Budget of about 300 billion Naira and the rubber-stamp Oyo state House of Assembly wasted no time in approving the curious document.
Not long after that, a Bazaar of Contracts were awarded by the Government of Oyo state.
About 64 billion Naira was approved for the overhauling of the structures of the Government House.
The sum of almost 132 million Naira was approved to employ professional gardeners for the maintenance of green areas of the Government House.
Another sum of almost 14.3 billion Naira was approved for installation of instrument Landing Systems (ILS) at the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport.
A couple of days ago, the Oyo state Executive Council also approved the commencement of the Light Up Oyo Solar Project with 595,000,000 million Naira while a huge sum of 190, 000,000 million Naira will be paid monthly for the operations and maintenance of the project as it stands. ( Whatever that means).
The By-election for the Ibadan North Federal Constituency is coming up on the 16th of August, 2025.
The actions of the Oyo state Government in the past few weeks are not coincidental. They are deliberate.
I will give an example. A huge sum of five hundred and ninety five million Naira was approved for the maintenance of Light Up Oyo and another sum of a hundred and ninety million Naira was approved for the operations and maintenance of the same project on a monthly basis.
The Light Up Oyo is a project that has consumed over 40 billion Naira and a project Governor Makinde himself, admitted to its failure.
Governor Makinde promised to investigate the circumstances that led to the failure of the initial contact after less than two years.
Up till today, Governor Makinde has not made his findings concerning the failed project public, if at all he conducted any investigation.
Now, out of the blues, a whooping sum of 595 million Naira was approved for ” intervention and maintenance of a failed project. What intervention?
Another sum of 190 million Naira monthly is also approved for monthly maintenance. I am curious about this duplications.
A simple reading of the attached reasons for the release of the funds tell the story to a discerning mind.
I am not surprised. Governor Makinde is faced with a By-election which he is desperate to win.
He knows that his policies have impoverished the people and is therefore planning to capitalize on the hunger in the state.
He needs a great deal of money to throw around on the 16th of August, 2025.
Unfortunately, the resource of the state and the 33 Local Governments will suffer yet again.
The president has increased the monthly statutory Allocations to States and Local Governments.
Unfortunately, Governor Makinde has continued to plunder this resources through dubious contracts awarded to his cronies.
Yet, he will want the public to believe that Tinubu is the devil while, he, Makinde is the friend of the poor. ( Alaanu mekunnu).
He has imposed a candidate upon his Party and this has resulted in the resignation of the Ibadan North Local Government PDP Chairman.
I will deal with the confessions of the erstwhile Party Chairman at another time.
Like I said, Governor is seriously under pressure to win the By-election in Ibadan North.
Unfortunately, he will be using state resources meant for the development of Oyo state and the 33 Local Governments to prosecute a personal ambition.
We have kept demanding from him, accountability for the management of the resources of the 33 Local Governments since 2019 and he hasn’t picked up the courage to provide answers.
We have kept asking him to tell us why, in spite of the facts that majority of Local Governments in Oyo state can not point to a single achievement under his watch, yet, they are still in debts.
How do we rationalize the fact that statutory monthly Allocations to Local Governments kept increasing but we have nothing on ground to justify the increase in monthly Allocations?
The other time, Demola Ojo, the Oyo state Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy matters was shamelessly reeling out some funny figures and statistics.
I will also address his press briefing at a later date.
However, what is on ground in the 33 Local Governments is beyond what a Commissioner will gloss over in a theatrical press briefing.
Governor Makinde must tell us exactly how much he has collected as monthly Allocations on behalf of the 33 Local Governments since 2019 and what has happened to them.
Ordinarily, this is a matter that the 33 Local Government Chairmen should be addressing but since Governor Makinde has decided to usurp the functions of the 33 Local Government Chairmen, he must be ready to provide answers for the resources he has been mismanaging.
Like I have said, we will be waiting for Governor Makinde to get to the podium and start his campaign of ‘ Ebi npa wa’ and we will put on the hot seat.
We will let the whole world know that, much more than Tinubu, Makinde owes Oyo state explanations about our resources.
There will be no hiding place. We have correct figures of what he has taken, the projects he has executed and the debts profile.
He has been hiding all this while. We want to see where he will hide during the campaign for Ibadan North Federal Constituency By-election.
We won’t give room for the Governor to keep hiding behind a finger as he has been doing all this while.
When he comes to equity, we will show the world that his hands are soiled.
I want to use this medium to sound a very strong note of warnings to the Career officers at the Local Governments, most especially, those in Ibadan North Local Government.
We are aware of the illegal movements of funds from the other Local Governments and the domiciling of such funds in Ibadan North.
Career officers at Local Governments can not claim ignorance of the provisions of the Financial Memorandum For Local Governments and the procedures for withdrawing funds from each Local Governments.
The illegalities currently pervading the Local Governments are not hidden and they will attract consequences for certain, at the appropriate time.
Oko Oba, Ada Oba ko nii sa wa lese o.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
