Osun Bailout Fund: PDP Accuses Aregbesola Of Lodging N35bn In Fixed Deposit For Interest

By Patrick Aigbokhan

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, of fixing the N34.988bn bailout received from the Central Bank of Nigeria for two months with a commercial bank.
Mr. Diran Odeyemi, spokesperson for the PDP in Osun State, made the accusation in a statement in Osogbo on Monday, alleging that the state received the fund about two weeks ago but the governor decided to lodge it in a fixed deposit account in order to attract interest from it.
The statement partly read, “Only paperwork was completed last week. But since the arrival of the money exactly 14 days ago, Aregbesola in his usual ‘I don’t care nature’ instead of commencing payment of workers’ dues, lodged the N35bn given to the state.
“According to our findings, the bank that agreed to give Aregbesola the biggest interest running into several millions of naira was given the money to fix.
“The governor is buying time, for over two weeks now, he had been hiding behind staff screening to fish out ghost workers and the exercise is designed to last for another eight weeks.”
PDP lamented the suffering the workers and pensioners were going through due to the delay in payment of their salaries and pensions.
But in his reaction to the allegation, Governor Aregbesola, who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, described the allegation as unfounded and another lie from the PDP’s factory.
The governor said PDP fabricated the date it claimed the fund was received even when the CBN said the money was released last week.
Aregbesola challenged the opposition party to produce the proof of the purported fixed deposit transaction to authenticate its claims.
The governor said, “Besides, the verification exercise which the party claims is the subterfuge for this alleged lodgement in a fixed deposit account for personal gains is being handled with the active involvement of civil servants. Does the PDP expect the workers themselves to delay the verification for its imagined interests on the funds to materialise?