Oyo Govt reacts over frozen accounts as Gov Makinde assents 2024 budget

Oyo State Government says it is still studying the ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court that ordered the freezing of 10 of its bank accounts.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr Sulaiman Olanrewaju, stated this in a chat in Ibadan on Friday.

Recall that Justice A.O. Ebong had, on Dec. 15, issued an order attaching the state government’s accounts in 10 commercial banks in the country.

Ebong gave the order while ruling on a garnishee proceeding initiated by the local government chairmen who were sacked by Gov. Seyi Makinde on May 29, 2019.

The Supreme Court had, on May 7, 2021, voided the sack of the chairmen and councilors, as pronounced by the governor on the day of his inauguration for his first term in office in 2019.

The sacked council chairmen had gotten a N4,874,889,425.60 judgment against Makinde and other officials and agencies of the state, of which N1.5 billion had been paid, leaving a balance of N3.5 billion.

But, the special adviser, while speaking with NAN, said that the court ruling was still being studied by the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.

He said that after the ruling must have been properly studied, the state government would now come up with its own position on the issue at stake.

“You will agree with me that it is a sensitive matter. So the ruling needs to be properly studied after which government will now come up with its own position,” Sulaiman said.

Makinde assents to N438.4bn Appropriation Bill for 2024

Meanwhile, Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, on Friday, gave his assent to the N438.4 billion Appropriation Bill for  the 2024 fiscal year.

In a brief speech after signing the document at the Executive Chamber of the Government House, Makinde said he would ensure that the budget achieved at least 80 per cent performance.

He solicited the support of the lawmakers and organised labour for the effective implementation of the budget for the financial year.

The Governor had on December 5 presented N434.2 billion budget proposal, tagged “Budget of Economic Recovery” to the House of Assembly.

It comprised N222.3 billion for capital expenditure and N211.8 billion for recurrent expenditure.

The lawmakers, however, raised the estimate by N4.2 billion, bringing the sum to N438 billion.