The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, on Sunday, challenged Governor Seyi Makinde to explain how he utilised the N50 billion Relief Fund he allegedly received from President Bola Tinubu in the wake of the devastating explosion that ravaged parts of Bodija GRA in the state capital in January 2024, or resign from office immediately.
It would be recalled that a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, had revealed during a live interview programme aired on a Lagos-based private television station on Friday that Gov. Makinde got the money on behalf of the victims of the explosion when he visited the President to brief him on the incident, but he (Makinde) failed to either acknowledge the receipt of the huge sum of money or utilise it for the purpose of providing succour to those who lost their lives and properties in the incident.
In a statement issued and made available to journalists by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC berated Gov. Makinde for his disparaging remarks against President Tinubu and his Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, during a recent media chat in which the governor alleged that he turned down the request of the President to organise the opposition APC in the state, even as he was quoted to have said that the Minister of Power lacked the capacity to deliver.
“Gov. Makinde emerged as the new face of sleaze immediately he assumed office as the governor of Oyo State in 2019, when he started reviewing existing government contracts and inflating their costs astronomically. The trend continued unabated with a reckless show of penchant for awarding contracts without any recourse to the Due Process provision of the law, as evident in the award of contracts for the renovation of Agodi Government House and the second phase of the Ibadan Circular Road Project at the costs of N63.5b and N259b respectively.
“On the issue of the Ibadan explosion, Gov. Makinde claimed to have spent N4.5b on the victims even without accountability or proper records to show who got what.
Now that his close friend and fellow party man has disclosed that a whopping N50b was actually paid into the coffers of the Oyo State government as a Relief Fund by the federal government, Gov. Makinde should know that a flippant reaction by his media aide cannot suffice, as the whole world needs to know what he did with the money.
“And lastly, it should be on record that there was never a time that Oyo APC required reorganisation in the hands of Makinde, who has emerged Chief Pallbearer of the PDP, which gave him the platform to be governor for two consecutive terms. As it stands now, the least amongst the prospective gubernatorial aspirants in our party possesses greater capacity to be innovative, creative and successful as the state governor than the one who merely celebrates window dressing and inflicts hardship on property owners and other residents across the state,” APC said.
