PDP urges governor to account for N38b Agagu left behind

The Ondo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday urged the ruling Labour Party (LP) administration under Governor Olusegun Mimiko to explain how it managed the N38billion it reportedly inherited from the Olusegun Agagu administration.
The PDP said the Agagu administration did not leave behind a N117billion debt profile when it left office in 2009, as alleged by Mimiko.
According to the party, since the allegation was raised by Mimiko, he has failed to give details of how he arrived at the huge debt.
Addressing reporters at the party’s secretariat in Akure, the state capital, the Chairman, PDP State Publicity Committee Demola Ijabiyi said Mimiko had been making the allegation without proving it, to stop the party from ruling the state again.
Ijabiyi said Agagu handed over the state to the LP with clean hands, adding that the former government did not owe any contractor or loot the treasury.
He said: “When Mimiko first made this allegation in his State of the Finances of the State Address in August 2009, we challenged him through Dr. Tayo Dairo, our state chairman at the time, to give the details. We of the PDP even went as far as petitioning the House of Assembly to ask him for details. And we are aware that the House actually challenged him on this. Till now, no details were given; yet, the administration keeps repeating the allegation.
“What we do know is that, as admitted by the Mimiko administration itself, the total sum of all the capital projects of the Agagu administration was N82billion. From N30 billion of this, the administration paid 30 per cent mobilisation, leaving a balance of N21 billion. And from the remaining N52 billion, it paid 50 per cent mobilisation, leaving a balance of N26 billion. On both categories, the balance was N47 billion.
“Some of the projects were completed and paid for in full, so that eventually, the outstanding balance is far less than N40 billion. That administration left behind a cash of N38 billion which, when subtracted from the outstanding balance, will leave nothing left as debt but cash asset, instead.
“So, how come the N117 billion? We must declare categorically that the PDP government, under Dr. Olusegun Agagu, never owed a kobo on projects, salaries, pensions, or any other thing whatsoever. It also owed no kobo to any bank. That is why we have been calling on the present administration to come out with details. Mimiko must, therefore, speak out. It is a duty and not a favour.
“Talking of this N38 billion cash, the Mimiko administration has claimed that the amount left behind by the Agagu administration was N34 billion. Whether 38 or 34, we demand to know how the money was spent by Governor Mimiko. A rumour has it that a substantial part of it was lost in a deal with a new generation bank. Mimiko must speak out on this.”
The PDP chieftain also urged the government to explain how it managed the $24billion oil block code-named OPL 241, which he said the Agagu administration acquired.
He said: “Agagu’s government spent $24billion on this block and had wanted to sell it for $37billion, after just a year. But when Mimiko came into office, he cried foul, claiming that the block was only worth $1billion.
“In his State of the Finances of the State Address in August 2009, Mimiko promised to do something about the oil block. Till now, he has been silent on this monumental asset he inherited from the PDP government. We now challenge him to speak out on it.”
Ijabiyi wondered why the LP administration has not addressed the residents on how he has been managing the state’s funds.
The PDP chieftain alleged that the government had been spending Ondo State resources recklessly by “inflating some of the projects it embarked upon”.
He added: “For instance, each of the bus stops in Akure cost N50 million; the Alagbaka Roundabout and its water fountain cost N480 million; the electric poles on the Oba Adesida Road (in Akure) costs N3.9 million each; the cost of repairing the damaged 100-metre portion of the Akure-Owo Road at Ogbese was N118 million.
“The Mother and Child Hospital, originally meant to cost about N100 million, has gulped over N1 billion; N1.5 billion was spent on the Dome project before the project was abandoned; the cost of a new mega school has risen from the N365 million estimated for each to over N800 million, even when they all remain uncompleted. The total amount that the government has spent on all its ongoing road projects is about N10 billion but none of them has been completed.”