I’m not competing with Osoba, help me beg him, Amosun tells Ogun people

Senator Ibikunle Amosun yesterday said he would do everything within his power to settle the rift between him and Chief Segun Osoba, appealing to the elders and people of Ogun State to help him beg the ex – governor for forgiveness if he has done wrong.

Amosun said he is neither in “competition with Osoba” whom he called his “leader” nor anybody, adding that he would continue to accord him utmost respect at all times.

The Governor who spoke during a live programme of the Abeokuta – based Rock-City 101.9 FM radio station and monitored by The Nation, said the Office of Governor is temporary but added that he has come to develop the state and then leave a legacy that would outlive him.

According to him, he is not ignorant of the fact that no politician would want to go into the general elections with a divided house or in an atmosphere of division and acrimony as such, rarely profit anybody.

He revealed that the debt profile which stood at about N40bn last month, has crashed to N36bn. 

He said that, Ogun does not owe the fabulous N300bn debt being peddled about, by “mischievous persons” out to put wool over the eyes of residents and friends of the state.

Amosun noted that his administration has had to pass through “strenuous and difficult approach” to source funds from banks, to enable it execute its many capital projects among others, across the state in the last three years.

He said: “opposition said we have borrowed over N300bn debts to finance our projects. They are just liars. No bank in Nigeria can lend any government more than N25bn. What they don’t know is that, we have increased our IGR to more than N5bn monthly from initial N730m we met.”

According to him, the highest credit facility ever collected at a time by the administration is about N15bn managed in such a way that the debt profile does not exceed N40bn.

He declared that the administration inherited crippling debt burden, left for it to carry by his predecessor which is being settled in bits. But that in civilized climes, such people that plunged Ogun State into needless liability, should be walking on the streets in palpable remorse, and perhaps made to face justice.