Adebutu surrounded by PDP stalwarts today at Ake Palace ground.
By Foluso Adelaja, Editor
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has come out with damming reasons to oust the present Ogun State Government from governance, insisting that the All Peoples Congress (APC) has grossly mismanaged the state.
At the flag off of the PDP’s campaign for the 2023 General Elections held today (Friday, 9th December, 2022) at Ake Palace Ground, Abeokuta, the Gubernatorial Candidate of the party, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu said a survey conducted on the state revealed a deep rot casting the state into an abyss of mismanagement.
According to Hon Adebutu, the survey revealed high rates of endemic poverty, youth unemployment, inadequate social services, poor infrastructure and insecurity.
He noted that the cumulative effect is unbearable life for all and sundry as “insecurity now pervades our communities and has become the norm, as our people cannot sleep with eyes closed again”.
Adebutu called on the people of Ogun State that ” it will interest you to know how much damage this government has caused us as a result of their inexperience, lack of integrity, incompetence and stratospheric height while key members of the government presently face grievous charges of corruption which ideally should have caused them to recuse themselves from governance.
“The debt profile of the state is of great concern and worry, it keeps increasing since the inception of this government in 2019. The debt rose from N173.07bn in 2019 to N192.82bn in 2020, which caused our state to be ranked 7th most indebted state out of the 36 states.
“The situation has continued to get worse as the State’s debt is now been shielded from the public because it has astronomically gone up.
“The domestic debt profile as recorded by this administration again rose from N155.57bn in 2021 to N241.78bn by June 2022 representing a disheartening 55.4% increase in debt”.
Adebutu noted that APC’s government has continuously succeeded in enlisting Ogun State in the list of highest indebted states in the country.
“Under their administration, the state dropped to the 19th position on the 2021 Fiscal Performance Ranking from the 3rd position in 2020, contrary to their fake noise and hype that there was improvement in the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, the sharp slide from the 3rd position to the 19th position within 10 months of review was as a result of the decline in the IGR of the state by about 28.44%. In correct perspective, the IGR dropped with about N20.17bn within a period of 11 months.
“In contrast to the make-belief of this government that it grew the IGR to attain the 10th position in the 2021 fiscal performance, the expenditure per capita of Ogun State was at N5,120 per citizen which was lower than the National average of N8,129 spending per citizen on all the 36 states.
“Sadly, with all the IGR generated in 2021, their government implemented just 63.25% of the approved budget; a chunk of this expenditure was claimed to have been spent on: Personnel and overhead costs; yet the government is owing workers heavily with 72 months unpaid contributory deductions; 8 years leave allowance which means the government has sadly not paid any deductions in their 4 years in office, 13th month allowance.
“Capital projects; yet our roads are very bad, the state can not boast of meaningful projects worth the value of N82.38bn.
“Some of the roads they claimed they constructed in 2021 are already failing just in one year”.
The PDP Gubernatorial Candidate said his party has realized that our people are tired of the misrule and bad governance fostered on them now; hence the clamour for a change.
He declared: “Today, we are here to formally declare our readiness as a party to take over power on the way to good governance in May 2023.
“Our commitment to deliver the good people of Ogun State from the shackles of the ruling party stems from the first-hand experience I have by living amongst my people in Ogun State for the past 31 years”, Adebutu noted.
