By Damilola Oni
The total sum of N5.87bn was deducted from the N6.44bn the Osun State Government received as allocation from the Federal Government for the first quarter of 2020.
The sum which represents 91% of the total allocation received was deducted from the monthly allocations of January, February and March 2020.
Founded in 2011, BudgIT, a civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change, in a recently released report published the figures alongside with the 35 other states of the Federation.
According to BudgIT’s data, Osun is the State with the highest percentage of debt deduction for the first quarter of the year.
It is however unclear if the present administration of Gboyega Oyetola has obtained new loans or what the state is servicing is that incurred by the immediate past administration.
There has been several alleged figures of the debt profile of the State, the latest is the accusation by the Senator representing Osun East Senatorial District, Francis Fadahunsi over the debt profile of the State. The government of Gboyega Oyetola at inception also failed to give financial report it met
Recall that the immediate past Governor, Rauf Aregbesola had at an “Ogbeni Till Daybreak” programme of May 2018 said the state’s remaining unpaid debt of N143.6 billion would be defrayed latest by the year 2019.
Responding to enquiries on the total debt profile of Osun, the governor, directed the Accountant General of the state, Mr Kolawole Akintayo to give the accurate and total amount the state was owing both locally and internationally.
According to Akintayo, “total debt of Osun was N171.4bn in the last seven years. A sum of N28bn had been paid, leaving a balance of N143.6bn debt”.