Governor Biodun Oyebanji has been tasked by Opeyemi Falegan, a prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, to provide an accounting of the federal funds the state has received over the past year.
He claimed that the rise in the amount the government was receiving as revenue allocation from the Federation Account did not justify the supposed high level of hardship the population were going through.
But, Information Commissioner Taiwo Olatunbosun said the resources going to the state were being judiciously spent, adding that ‘’this has gained the Oyebanji government recognition and accolades from Transparency International and other respectable worldwide entities.
The commissioner stated that the state’s monthly allotment data from the Federation Account were always available to the public via the government website, and that the present administration had nothing to conceal.
Falegan urged the governor to be transparent about the amount collected and the state’s resource allocation throughout the last year in a statement he made yesterday in Ado-Ekiti.
The PDP leader asserted that despite the significant federal allocation and intervention money made available by the federal government to lessen the impact of the elimination of subsidies on the populace, nothing was visible.
He said: “We are worried and concerned about the plight of the masses in Ekiti, whose conditions have not been improving despite the increasing federal allocation and Federal Government palliative to the state as a result of mismanagement, lack of foresight and misplacement of priority on the part of the governor.
“There nothing tangible we can point to as part of what he has been spending the public fund on that one can say has a direct benefit in the lives of the masses. Rather, what we have seen the governor busy with is the issue of his second term and endorsement; when he has not even spend two years in office.
“It is our constitutional right to make enquiry as to how our money is being spent. It is also part of the responsibility to tell us what he has been doing with our money and where he is putting our money.
“As a responsible and concerned citizen, we are worried about the plight and the living condition of our people and we are challenged to call out Governor Oyebanji to explain to us and the people of Ekiti what he has been doing with our money and most especially the money received from federal allocation in the last one year that there has been increase in the allocation to states.”
The Information Commissioner responded by characterising Falegan as an attention-seeker and stating that his assertions demonstrated a lack of awareness of the state’s realities.
Olatunbosun further stated that only a narrow-minded political bigot could overlook the positive changes occurring in the state’s intricacies.
He stated Falegan’s opinion of the Oyebanji government did not match the public’s praise and applause—even from unbiased critics—that the governor had been receiving.
