Aregbesola’s aide threatens Osun govt agency with lawsuit

Wale Bolorunduro, the Commissioner for Finance in the administration of former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has threatened to drag the Director-General of the state’s Debt Management Office, Tunde Adejumo, before a court for misquoting him regarding finances of the state.

Bolorunduro, who served in the state cabinet between 2011 and 2014, in a statement issued in Osogbo on Sunday, said Adejumo failed to disclose loan deductions from state allocations at the inception of the Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administration in 2018 and present deductions for commercial loans restructured into Federal Government’s bond.

Adejumo had in a statement on Friday accused Bolorunduro of creating misconceptions by claiming that deferral of the monthly loan repayments on salary bailout and budget support loans obtained by the Aregbesola administration to mean “another windfall for the Oyetola administration,” insisting that Osun’s cash flow presently remained stressed following deductions and the drop in monthly statutory allocations.

But reacting, Bolorunduro said, “I am surprised you used the word ‘windfall’. I really don’t know why you have to dissemble on this because I didn’t use this word and nothing can be insinuated like this from the extract of my memoir suggesting the reprieve on the cash flow as windfall?

“How can it be windfall when the revenue has dropped? Please note that I don’t take libel easily and I may have to seek recourse in court of law concerning some of your words.”

He also warned of the implication of making Osun appear insolvent, saying, “Managing an entity that is insolvent or purported to be insolvent, you will require the IFC to do due diligence on it before you can attract funding, even if you have to post private instruments to raise funds.

“You know any funding you attract now is not funding for me or the past government. Your politics should not jeopardise the future of a state with four million population.”