Group accuses Mimiko of squandering N262bn

HAKEEM GBADAMOSI (National Mirror)

A socio - political group in Ondo State, Sunshine Liberation Forum (SLF) has accused the state government under Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of squandering over N262bn that allegedly accrued to the state in the last 28 months.
The group, in a release signed by the Chairman of the Publicity Committee, Segun Odidi, accused Governor Mimiko of financial recklessness, with no meaningful projects to show for it. He said the government has no vision, but was only toying with the lives of the people of the state. Odidi alleged that the sum of N147bn accrued to the state from the Federal Allocation Account within the period, with another N35bn given to the local government in the state through the state government, which he also alleged the state government to have only released a paltry sum to the local governments.
He said beside the N38bn left in the state’s coffers by the administration of former Governor Agagu, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) within the last 28 months amounted to N42bn and the only projects executed by the Mimiko’s government is building of “low profile markets stalls and bus stops.”
Odidi, who said the money expended on the projects by the state was not commensurable with the amount of money that accrued to it, calling on the people to ask the state government to make public, how they have been “administering our money.” The group recalled that Governor Mimiko promised to turn around and industrialise the state within the first 100 days, but said no single industry is functioning in the state, thereby shooting up the unemployment rate in the state.

He said: “The state wasted over N6.9bn to prosecute the just-concluded election, this money if judiciously spent could have been used to resuscitate one of the moribund industries that abound in the state. Odidi also alleged that the state government also wasted N1.2bn on “Kaadi Igbeayo” which according to him was irrelevant. He also accused “the state of spending over N200m to settle some eminent citizens of the state with the mind of buying them.”