The governor of Osun state, Ademola Adeleke, has debunked the report that he received N8bn from the Oyo state government as the settlement payment for Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.
Adeleke said it was the government of former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola that received N3.5bn and spent almost N2bn from the fund before leaving office.
This was disclosed on Wednesday in a statement by Governor Adeleke’s Spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed.
Olawale said: “Contrary to the fake news, the Oyetola administration got a payment of Three Billion, Five Hundred Million from the Oyo state government as part of the LAUTECH settlement payment before leaving office.
“To put it more directly, the sum of Three Billion, Five Hundred Million Naira (N3,500,000,000) came in during the period of the last dispensation.
“The credit balance stood at One Billion, Five Hundred and Sixty Two Million, Four Hundred and Forty Thousand, and Four Hundred and Thirty-Six Naira (N1,562,440,436.80) as of November 30th, 2022. It therefore means that the sum of N1,937,559,563.20 was expended during the last administration.
“From November 2022 till date, the Adeleke administration received only Five Hundred Million Naira on the LAUTECH refund since assumption of office.
“When added to the N3.5 Billion paid by the Oyo government during the Oyetola administration, a total of Four Billion Naira has so far been received from the Oyo state government by the Osun state government.”
The spokesperson disclosed that the Adeleke-led administration spent part of the fund on ongoing infrastructure upgrade projects across the sectors of the state economy.
He said as a transparent administration, all inherited and newly generated funds were properly managed by the state financial managers while state expenditures were drawn from the state accounts as stipulated in the Appropriation Act.
Olawale described the report that the Adeleke government had received N8 billion payment on the LAUTECH settlement as fake news from an opposition that had lost “all its credibility and electability.”
“Governor Ademola Adeleke remains committed to transparency, accountability and anti-corruption practices in the management of state resources. We call on the public to ignore the baseless report from those merchants of falsehood,” he said.
LAUTECH was established on April 23, 1990, by the old Oyo state with the name Oyo State University of Technology, Ogbomoso (OSUTECH).
The name of the university was changed to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH) when Osun State was created out of the old Oyo State in 1991.
The University was jointly owned by the Oyo and Osun states until November 20, 2020, when the university became solely owned by Oyo state following a mutual agreement between the two states.