The Osun State government has said the allegation by the state’s chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the Rauf Aregbesola administration inflated the airport project at Ido Osun by N11 billion is a confirmation that the party is suffering from “hallucination that is causing its wild imagination and delusions”.
The government said the PDP was showing that there was no limit to the depth it could sink in irrational and illogical thinking.
In a statement yesterday in Osogbo, the state capital, by the Director of the Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the government noted that PDP’s allegation was inelegant and absurd because it lacked foundation in reason or logic.
The statement said the alleged inflated contract of the Moshood Abiola International Airport from N4.5 billion to N15.5 billion was fictitious.
The government said the Osun PDP had again displayed what it called pettiness, mischief and crass ignorance about governance.
It said the contract, under a former PDP administration in the state over six years ago, was reviewed from N3,967,085,161.38 to N7,512,615,918.06.
The government noted that this alone was enough to puncture PDP’s fabrications.
The statement added: “To every reasonable critic, if a contact was reviewed to N7.5 billion as far back as 2010 to the knowledge of the Presidency and the Ministry of Aviation, does it not make sense to consider exchange rates and other factors that could be responsible for the upward review of the contract?
“But we know that PDP can only survive on lies. However, we are consoled by the fact that its lies of 16 years are in the open. Its leaders are singing at the corridors of the anti-graft agencies and it is a matter of time before those who got contracts and never executed them but used the ill-gotten funds to intimidate the people of our state come to judgment as well, just like their cohorts who are now guests of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and inmates in some of Nigerian prisons.”
Noting that the Aregbesola administration had no problem with constructive criticisms from the opposition, the government said: “The job of the opposition is not to concoct lies but to provide strong criticism spiced with concrete facts.”
The statement recalled that the state’s airport project was in line with the realities of airport construction in Nigeria, citing the examples of Kebbi Airport, which it said was built with about N17 billion and Bauchi’s N13 billion built about two years ago.
The Osun government noted that the aviation industry was changing worldwide, adding that an airport is not just about transporting air passengers alone but key in the movement of cargoes.
The statement said the MKO Abiola International Airport under construction in Osun was being built with huge economic benefits to the state.
It added that the provision for a hanger for aircraft maintenance was part of the strategies to boost the state’s economy.
The statement said it was not of no importance when the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) urged states to boost the movement of cargoes and passengers to accelerate economic development.
On the alleged increase in the contract sum to embezzle the bailout loan the state got from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the statement wondered if PDP members in Osun resided in the state for them not to be unaware of how the bailout fund was handled transparently.
Stating that the airport project had nothing to do with salaries or pensions, the government said a project, which was initiated before the coming of the Aregbesola administration, could not be the reason for the delay in the payment of salaries.
It noted that the delay was a settled matter, given the understanding between the workers and the government.
The statement reminded PDP of the visit of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba to the state’s workers when he described such allegation as misleading and unfounded.
It said: “The Osun government and labour leaders came to a common ground on how the bailout funds were disbursed for the payment of backlog of workers’ salaries.
“Any insinuation on (the purported) abuse or misappropriation of the fund is simply the imagination of a jaundiced mind.
“The union and the state government set up a 17-man committee, currently overseeing the apportionment of all revenues accruing to the state for equitable distribution to all sectors of government for industrial harmony and effective administration of the state.”