Ibadan Explosion: ‘Account For N50bn Relief Fund’, Oyo APC Tells Makinde

The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has told Governor Seyi Makinde to explain how he utilised the N50 billion Relief Fund allegedly received from President Bola Tinubu in the wake of the explosion that rocked the Bodija GRA in January 2024.

LEADERSHIP recalls that a former Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, recently alleged during a live interview programme on a Lagos-based television station on Friday that Governor Makinde got the money on behalf of the victims when he visited Tinubu to brief him on the incident.

Fayose accused Makinde of failure to either acknowledge the receipt of the enormous sum of money or utilise it for the purpose of providing succour to those who lost their lives and properties in the incident.

Reacting to the allegation, Oyo APC Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, who berated Makinde for his remarks against Tinubu and Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, during a recent media chat, where the governor claimed that he turned down Tinubu’s request to organise the opposition APC in the state.

Makinde also declared that the Minister of Power lacked the capacity to organise the APC in Oyo State.

Sadare, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Ibadan, said, “Makinde claimed to have spent N4.5bn on the victims even without accountability or proper records to show who got what. Now that his close friend and fellow party man has disclosed that a whopping N50bn was actually paid into the coffers of the Oyo State Government as a Relief Fund by the federal government, Gov. Makinde should know that a flippant reaction by his media aide cannot be enough, as the whole world needs to know what he did with the money.

“And lastly, it should be on record that there was never a time that Oyo APC required reorganisation in the hands of Makinde, who has emerged ‘Chief Pall Bearer’ of the PDP, which gave the platform to be a governor for two consecutive terms.

“As it stands now, the least amongst the prospective gubernatorial aspirants in our party possesses greater capacity to be innovative, creative and successful as the state governor than the one who merely celebrates window dressing and inflicts hardship on property owners and other residents across the state,” APC said.

Sadare stated further that Governor Makinde “emerged as the new face of sleaze immediately after he assumed office as the governor of Oyo State in 2019, when he began reviewing existing government contracts and inflated their costs astronomically.”

He emphasised that the trend continued unabated with the alleged award of contracts without recourse to the due process provision of the law, as evident in the award of contracts for the renovation of Agodi Government House and the second phase of the Ibadan Circular Road Project, said to be awarded at the costs of N63.5 billion and N259 billion, respectively.