The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Sunday said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC never indicted the state as regards the alleged diversion of bailout funds disbursed to states by the federal government.
Aregbesola who made the statement while addressing workers in the state during a ceremony organized in commemoration of the 2016 International Workers Day said that ICPC has confirmed to the state through a letter that it never indicted the state on the disbursement of the bail-out loan.
He noted that ICPC had written to his office to clarify insinuations by the opposition that his government diverted bailout funds.
It would be recalled that the media was awash two last week over allegation of misapplication of the bailout loan by some states who obtained the loans.
The governor added that according to the letter written to him, ICPC said that there was no evidence indicating that the funds distributed as at then, had been applied to any other matter apart from salaries in the state.
He stressed that the report was just an extract of what the commission got from officials of government on a template provided by ICPC and forwarded to it in October 2015.
The Governor said, “I want to also assure you, contrary to the insinuation being made by our traducers, who claimed we diverted the bailout funds, that nothing of such happened. This is the concoction of a mischievous opposition and their media conspirators.
“ICPC never indicted us. Other media agencies reported the ICPC accurately that the data it published on disbursement of bailout funds by states was as at October last year and this was given to them by us. How could we then have indicted ourselves?.
“I am happy that ICPC has cleared the air. The anti-corruption body has written to us affirming again that the information it gave out covered only October 2015, saying that it never indicted us since no evidence exists that we applied the funds to any other matter outside of workers salaries.
“We demanded for N64.3 billion to cover outstanding salaries, pension and gratuities up till June 2015 for the state workers and N23.8 billion to cover the salaries, pension and gratuities for the local government workers for the same period.
“However, we got N25.8 billion for state and N9.1 billion for local government, totaling N34.9 billion. So, we can all see that this is a far cry from what we needed and asked for. We got this far only because of exceptional financial engineering, extreme prudence and commendable cooperation of Labour.
“I must also let you know that there is no way we could have diverted the funds, knowing that it was not sufficient for our needs in the first place”. He stressed.
Aregbesola also announced the naming of a major road at the state capital, Orita Olaiya/Itan Olookan, as Workers Drive in recognition of what he described as the perseverance of the workers in the face of challenging financial situation and assured the state workers that the worst is over, promising that the state shall soon be out of the woods soon.
He added that state governors had a fruitful meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari who has been very concerned about welfare of Nigerian states.
He commended workers of the state for their fierce loyalty, dedication, hard working, industrious and their exhibition of the fear of God during the challenging period.
He continued: “We are particularly grateful for the fiercely loyal, dedicated, hard working, industrious and God-fearing workers we have in Osun.
“I can go on ad infinitum, but there is no doubt that without workers, no administration can succeed in doing anything.
“Our workers have also demonstrated unsurpassable understanding and forbearance in the face of the challenges we are going through. I will be eternally grateful to them.
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