Peter Dada, Akure

The immediate former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, on Thursday faulted the claim by his predecessor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, over the state of finance of the state.

Akeredolu on Wednesday at the swearing in of the 18 new commissioners in Akure, the state capital, said the state was in a bad economic situation when he took over in February 2017, adding that he inherited a debt of over N220bn.

But Mimiko, in a statement issued by the immediate former Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, insisted that he left a sum of N20bn, noting that his administration did not incur any foreign debt as alleged.

The former governor explained that all the external debt stock was inherited from previous administrations before him.

According to the statement, Mimiko said his administration left about N20bn in the coffers of the state when his tenure expired in February 2017.

The N20bn, he said, comprised N7.37bn in the current account, N7.53bn as fixed deposit; N1.2bn in the MDG Account; $346,000 and 443,000 Euros in the domiciliary account as well as the N825m Sure-P fund at the local government account.

The statement read, “Our administration did not incur any foreign debt in all its eight years. Also, the external debt stock as at February 2017 was US$ 49,958,268.49, which (if translated at 1 US $ = N305) is N15.23bn.

“Again, we did not contract any external loan for all of our eight years. Well aware of the fact that government is a continuum, we continued to service the debts, some of which spanned over 20 years.

“Internal debt profile, we aver, stood at N53.159bn comprising mainly of salary bailout loan of N13.76bn, Excess Crude Account loan N9.79bn, CBN restructuring FGN Bond N4.13bn, CBN budget support, N7.5bn and Ondo State seven-year bond of N17.6bn.

“Of all the above listed indebtedness, only the Ondo State seven-year bond was directly incurred by our government to build major infrastructure across the state.”

The former governor urged the Akeredolu administration to avail itself of the true state of “our indebtedness from the Debt Management Office and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.”

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