Gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Oyo State, Adebiyi Adedapo, has challenged the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi, to come clean over the alleged disappearance of N30 billion in local government funds, accusing him of dodging accountability by shifting responsibility between the state government and local councils.
Adedapo’s demand followed remarks by Adekanmbi when he appeared on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Tuesday, where the former Commissioner for Finance, under the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi denied any involvement in the alleged missing funds and insisted the matter concerned local government alone.
Adekanmbi said on the programme that he never attended any meeting of the Joint Accounts Committee (JAC) and that the records relating to the funds were available.
“The 30 billion, I didn’t say it got missing,” he said, adding, “You must separate the Oyo State Government from the local government. The money went missing in local government. I never attended one JAC meeting. The money is there, the records are there, the resignations should focus on local government of which I have absolutely no impact, none at all.”
But the NNPP candidate rejected Adekanmbi’s explanation, saying the people of Oyo State deserve a transparent account of the funds and the officials who administered them.
“You cannot preside over the finances of a state and then wash your hands of what happened under your watch. The people of Oyo State deserve to know where this money went, who handled it, and what role the Finance Ministry played. This cannot be dismissed as simply a local government issue,” Adedapo said.
Adedapo further accused Adekanmbi of attempting to hide behind the bureaucratic separation between state and local government finances, arguing that as the state’s top finance official at the time, he could not credibly claim total ignorance of transactions involving N30 billion in public funds.
The NNPP candidate, thereby, called on Adekanmbi to provide a detailed explanation of what he knew about the alleged transactions, clarify his role in the management of local government finances during his tenure, and make all relevant records available to the public rather than shifting responsibility.