Ogun Denies N37bn Refund On Road Projects
The Ogun State Government has denied receiving N37 billion from the Federal Government as reimbursement for expenses on road projects carried out by the previous administration.
Some online news outlets had reported that the money was paid to the incumbent administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun.
In a statement, the State Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser, Dapo Okubadejo, argued that the last payment, on the federal government road refund programme, was made before the current administration took office.
According to him, all efforts to recover further road refunds from the FG have failed.
Okubadejo said, “A total of N37 billion was paid to the immediate past administration for FG road refund to the State, in two tranches of FG Treasury Note instruments of N15 billion and N22 billion respectively.
“The first Treasury Note of N15 billion issued in December, 2018 was discounted in January, 2019 for N10 billion, while the second Treasury Note of N22 billion was discounted for N17 billion during the first quarter of 2019, thereby resulting in total financial charges of about N10 billion incurred by the State.”
The explanation was necessary to clear the air, he said, urging journalists to always double-check facts before publishing their stories.
This explains why it has always published its Annual Audited Financial Statements, promptly as required,” Okubadejo said.
Ogun state needs special attention, particularly in terms of road rehabilitation, adding that the state deserves more attention than it currently receives due to its strategic location as Nigeria’s industrial capital.
Meanwhile, Governor Abiodun had lamented the deplorable condition of most federal roads in the state, stressing that N13 billion would be required to reconstruct the failed portions of the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta expressway and N75 billion to fix the entire stretch of road.
He had in 2021 revealed that the federal government owed the state over N300 billion for various federal roads built.
Comments are closed.