PDP accuses Ajimobi of awarding last minute contracts to family, friends

The OYO State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused outgoing governor Abiola Ajimobi of hurriedly awarding last minute contracts to his family members and close friends.

The allegation was leveled against Ajimobi by the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Akeem Olatunji, who says the governor is siphoning state funds in his last days in office through an alleged contract spree.

In an interview with New Telegraph, Olatunji also corroborated the allegation of Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor-elect, that Ajimobi has awarded a N30 billion contract to create hiccups for the incoming administration.

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He said; “We don’t make allegations when there are no evidence. In actual fact, we know that government is a continuum and we are not trying to stampede the incumbent government. Nevertheless, due process has to be followed in whatever is done. For the governor to just wake up one day and start to dash out contracts to cronies, is more or less a way of siphoning the funds of the state. About 33 excavators were recently bought with almost N10bn for local governments. The needs of each local government vary and so the state government should not have embarked on such project now. This was at a time when many of the local governments are finding it difficult to pay their workers’ salary as well as those of the retirees. We believe that government should be able to prioritise people’s needs.

“Aside this, a situation whereby within two months, more than N50bn projects were awarded by the government calls for worry. Has the government completed the projects on ground? When workers and retirees are being owed, where did they get the funds to execute those projects? If it were an ongoing project that funds were released for, no one will suspect any foul play.

“About N34bn excess crude fund belonging to the local government is in the Heritage Bank. This is not the time to spend such money anyhow because the incoming government needs to have something to fall back on. When government is winding up like this, the whole thing becomes bazaar with 10 per cent, 20 per cent being collected as kickback. That is why we are warning civil servants not to engage themselves in any transaction that can implicate them after the transition,” he added.

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