Local government boss’ allegation against Abiodun politically motivated — Akinmade

Chief Consultant on Media to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, said the allegation of diversion of local government allocations against the governor, by the former chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area, Mr. Wale Adedayo, was politically motivated.

He stated that contrary to the false claim, the governor had augmented several shortfalls in allocations to Local Governments from the Federation Account to the tune of N17 billion, from the inception of his administration in 2019 till date.

Speaking when he featured on Raypower FM programme, Facts File, and the Yoruba version on Faaji FM, Akinmade noted that Adedayo was out to tarnish the image of Governor Abiodun for parochial political motives.

His words: “The reduction in allocations to States is not peculiar to Ogun State and I can tell you with facts and figures that between 2019 till 2021 and 2022, Governor Dapo Abiodun had to augment the shortfall in all allocations to Local Government to the tune of N17 billion.

“For instance, in July 2019, allocation to Ogun State was just N3.4 billion and the first line charges were N3.5 billion, while the PAYE that was supposed to be paid to government was N146 million. The government had to augment it ditto for August, September and so on. In August of that year, the allocation was N3.2 billion while the wage bill was N3.3 billion. A shortfall of N900 million had to be paid by the government.

“The government continued to augment these allocations to ensure that workers in the local governments were not left out from regular payment of salaries.”