From: Bamigbola Gbolagunte Akure

Former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has declared that his administration left the sum of N20 billion in the coffers of the state government for his successor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN).

Reacting to a recent allegation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he left behind a debt of over N150 billion and eight months unpaid salary arrears, Mimiko advised Governor Akeredolu to face the business

of governance instead of indulging in cheap blackmail against him. Mimiko also cautioned the ruling APC in the state against criticizing his administration, saying doing that would not justify the mandate given to the party.

The former Governor, who spoke through the former Commissioner for Information in the state, Mr Kayode Akinmade, said “the claim by the APC is nothing but a lie from the pit of hell.”

He said “the APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Abayomi Adesanya who made the allegation was obviously intimidated by the performance record of the past government and will rather continue with his pre-election falsehood and lie-selling to seek attention, than live with the reality.”

He stated that his administration did not enter into any contractual obligation to warrant any increase in the external debt inherited by it when it assumed office eight years ago, adding that “we were able to reduce the debt profile of the state to 49.9million dollars.”

The former Governor explained that the foreign debts were overseas contracted obligations initiated by the two previous governments before his own.

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He put the domestic debts incurred by his administration at about N53 billion with Salary arrears of about N20 billion, submitting however,  that his government  left over N20 billion in the state coffers for the APC government.

Giving the details of the credit, Mimiko said “there are N7.37 billion and N7.53 billion respectively in the state’s Current and Deposit accounts, adding that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) account has N1.2 billion, while the Paris Club withheld fund account has N3 billion.

In the state’s foreign accounts, he said there are 346,000 dollars and 443,000 Euro respectively.

Admonishing the APC on the need to make use of its foundational time to enable it gain a good stand to enable it withstand the pressure of governance, especially from a sophisticated state like Ondo, Mimiko said the party’s spokes person should be tutored in the art of  modern image-building.

He observed that his retrogressive and lie-selling mode would only end up distracting the government from what it should do rather than diverting the attention of the public from the APC’s inadequacies which he said is the main reason for “Adesaya’s ridiculous and cheap propaganda.”

But the APC through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Adesanya insisted that Mimiko left a debt of N150 billion and eight months salary arrears, adding that the current administration was determined to develop the state more than it met it.

Adesanya who challenged Mimiko to an open debate on the state of finance of the state, maintained that “we will continue to point out to the bad things done by the immediate past administration for the people to know their real friends and enemies.”