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Osun Assembly Sets Up Committee Over N407.32bn State Debt Profile

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The Osun State House of Assembly has on Wednesday set up a committee to look into the N407.32 billion debt profile alleged by the state governor Ademola Adeleke.

Naija News reports that the Speaker of the Osun House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye at yesterday’s plenary inaugurated a 10-man ad-hoc committee to urgently investigate the exact debt profile of the state.

The house set up the committee after it requested to be furnished with updated details of the state’s debt by agencies of government.

The speaker in a statement issued by his media aide, Kunle Alabi revealed that the figure that the House of Assembly has was different from the one presented to it by the executive arm of government.

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He noted that if the debt profile situation is not handled with care, it would scare investors and others transactions with the state away.

Naija News reported last week that the Osun Assembly had shown concerns over the controversies surrounding Adeleke’s declaration of the amount of state debt left behind by his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who denied the claim and blamed his own predecessor Rauf Aregbesola for the state’s current debt profile.

Adeleke told some traditional rulers in the state last Thursday that the state was indebted to a tune of N407.32 billion which was left behind by the previous administration of Oyetola.

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The speaker at the inauguration of the committee advanced that “The committee has the Speaker as the Chairman, Chairman House Committee on Public Account and Chairman of Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Gbenga Ogunkanmi and Adebayo Olodo respectively as the Co-Chairmen.

“Other members of the committee are the Minority leader, Kofo Adewunmi, Tunde Olatunji, Michael Adetoyi, Babatunde Ibirogba, Lateef Adebisi, Babatunde Komolafe, Adiru Abefe and the Clerk, Simeon Amusan as the Secretary.”

Owoeye, who stood on sections 128 and 129 said, “For the purposes of any investigation under section 128 of this constitution and subject to the provisions thereof, a House of Assembly or a committee appointed in accordance within section 103 of this constitution shall have power to.

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“(a) procure all such evidence, written or oral, direct or circumstantial, as it may think necessary or desirable and examine all persons as witnesses whose evidence may be material or relevant to the subject matter;

“The only institution that can clear the air on this is the House of Assembly, government is a continuum, this exercise is going to be transparent, that’s why we have co-opted the Minority leader into the committee.”

Naija News also gathered that in another statement by the Chairman of, the House Committee on Information and Publicity, Kunle Akande, the house maintained that as the accredited representatives of the people, it has the responsibility to duly look into the matter to seek clarification for the people of the state.