N3.4b judgment debt: Accountant-General didn’t contradict governor – Oyo govt.
Oyo State Government has said that the Accountant-General of the state, Mrs Kikelomo Adegoke, did not contradict the position of Gov. Seyi Makinde on the payment of judgment debt to the sacked local government chairmen and councillors.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the clarification is contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr Sulaimon Olanrewaju in Ibadan on Monday.
Olanrewaju noted that there were reports in a section of the media twisting the contents of a letter sent to some banks by the accountant-general, claiming that she contradicted the governor’s stance that the state had no money to defray the judgment debt.
He said the letter sent to the banks in respect of the garnishee order placed on the state’s account in 10 commercial banks by a Federal High Court in Abuja in December 2023 was consistent with Makinde’s position.
“In the letter, the accountant-general informed the affected banks that the Oyo State Joint Local Government Allocation Account domiciled with First Bank of Nigeria, had already been put on lien to the tune of N3,425,300,000, being the total amount of the judgment debt.
“Having adequately provisioned for the debt, it is, therefore, both unconscionable and inequitable for nine other banks to do the same in the circumstances. This is, in fact, consistent with Gov. Makinde’s position,” he said.
Olanrewaju further stated that it was unfortunate that some misguided individuals, bent on creating an imaginary division within the state government had coloured the contents of the letter to make it appear as if the governor lied.
He also refuted the report that said the state would not pay the debt owned the former local government chairmen sacked by the Makinde-led administration.
Olanrewaju said what the governor said regarding the judgment debt was that the process of the law would be followed to a logical conclusion to avoid paying the state’s money to wrong people.
“For the avoidance of doubts, Gov. Makinde has not said that the state will not pay the judgment debt nor did he say the state does not have the funds to pay.
“Rather, the position of the governor is that the whole process of the law must be pursued to a logical conclusion before the money is paid to avoid the state’s fund getting into the wrong hands,” he said.
