THE Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on Tuesday, berated the administration of his predecessor, Chief Gbenga Daniel.Amosun, at a town hall and stakeholders' meeting on the 2012 budget, alleged that the immediate past administration stole a sum of N87 billion.But in his reaction, Chief Daniel said the Ogun State governor was merely playing to the gallery.Governor Amosun, who was reacting to a media publication that alleged that his administration was involved in a N350 million Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) scam, said that a lot of financial atrocities happened during Daniel's eight-year rule.The publication by the newspaper (not Tribune) accused Amosun's administration of inflating the APC security contract.The governor said that his government had since assumption of office decided not to open any can of worms about the state of affairs of the last administration, in order not to bring the office of the governor into disrepute.He said: 'For me because of this office, things that we do and I want you to just note this now; I have refrained from putting the office of the governor into any disrepute because I know that we will come and go. It is not about the person, it should be about the office.'A lot of things that I met when I came there, we couldn't say it out because when you now say such things out, it brings that office into disrepute. It even brings out the faith of the people that are reading those things outside, it probably again, bring them into disrepute.'Amosun further alleged that the last administration inflated money used in buying water treatment chemicals, especially Chlorine, which, he said, costs N70 per kilo against N145 claimed by the Daniel-led administration.'Everything they did there was an opportunity for them to steal money. We are not brought up like that, we are not thieves and we will not steal Ogun State money,' he said.The governor explained that his administration hired the services of financial experts to check the records of the state for N50 million against N500 million published in the media.He promised that his administration would do everything to bring dividends of democracy to the people of the state.In a swift reaction, Daniel described the allegation as baseless, saying that it was part of the propaganda against him.The former governor, in a statement signed by his media assistant, Adegbe-nro Adebanjo, said Amo-sun, during his visit to the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) recently, claimed that the last administration left N87 billion debt and wondered how the money suddenly turned into a stolen money.'It is needless and pointless reacting to such a phantom claim at a such commanding height of governance.'We should never play politics with facts and figures. It is also important that people in such high offices should never push lies into the public domain, just because they want to score cheap political points.'It is, therefore, clear that the governor of Ogun State merely played to the gallery at the town hall meeting, because deep down, he knows that there is no missing N87 billion in Ogun State and, therefore, no such amount has been stolen,' he said.
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