A group of civil society organisations based in Osun State has advised President Muhammadu Buhari against entrusting funds meant for the school feeding programme of his government in the hand of the state Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, alleging that the money will be misappropriated by him and his cohorts.

The group under the umbrella of the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) stated that already the plan to siphon the funds of the school feeding programme, which President Buhari is expected to launch in Osogbo, the state capital on Thursday, September 1, 2016 has been exposed.

In a statement signed by the CSCEOS Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman on Tuesday and made available to newsmen in Osogbo, the group lamented that the governor has connived with the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo to convince President Buhari to release funds meant for the free food project to state governments across the state.

“This is where corruption has swept into the programme. This is where the project will become conduit pipes through which billions of naira will be going into private purses. This is where Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade will be messed up.

“Already, Aregbesola has falsified documents where he tremendously increased numbers of pupils in the state public schools. He has also forced cooks being used for his inherited O-meal programme to sign documents that the state government was releasing N270 worth of food per child each day instead of the N28 he was giving them.

“We can imagine how much will be going into private accounts. For instance, if a sum of N270 is being released for one million pupils in the state, this would be N270 million. Whereas, the cooks will get meagre amount from this money and the remaining is going to be embezzled.

“We want to advise Mr. President to allow FG officials to be monitoring and executing the programme so as to avoid a situation where the state will be shortchanged by Aregbesola and his cronies. Today, Osun is the most indebted state in Nigeria under the nose of Aregbesola. In our state, it is the more you look, the less you see with window dressing projects to deceive people,” the statement reads.

CSCEOS stated that this call became imperative due to the experience of the people of the state in the hands of Mr. Aregbesola over the “criminal mismanagement of the funds that accrued to the state from Federation Account since November 2010 till date,” justifying its position that the school feeding programme funds of the FG would be diverted like that of N35 billion bailout funds meant for the payment of workers’ salaries and leave bonus with the pension due of retirees in the State.

The group also expressed displeasure over the state of affairs in the state, nay Nigeria where living conditions are unbearable for the masses, calling on the workers and retirees alike in the state to use the One-Day visit of Mr. President to the state as an opportunity to express their grievances on the non-payment of their seven to eight months backlogs of salaries and pensions despite the effort of the Buhari administration to bailout the state recently.

It equally urged the affected workers and retirees to be courageous enough to use their democratic means to press home their demands during the Presidential visit to the state, advising the people of the State to stop the idea of suffering and smiling culture during the visitation of their elected leaders as if all is well with them.

It added: “As a voice of the voiceless and down trodden masses of our people, we would not keep quiet in the face of misgovernance of Governor Aregbesola so as not to be guilty of complicity. Likewise, we would not close our eyes by allowing our meager resources to be siphoned by Aregbesola and his allies under the guise of a cosmetics programme.”

The group equally urged the affected workers and retirees to be courageous enough to use their democratic means to press home their demands during the Presidential visit to the state, advising the people of the State to stop the idea of suffering and smiling culture during the visitation of their elected leaders as if all is well with them.

It added: “As a voice of the voiceless and down trodden masses of our people, we would not keep quiet in the face of misgovernance of Governor Aregbesola so as not to be guilty of complicity. Likewise, we would not close our eyes by allowing our meager resources to be siphoned by Aregbesola and his allies under the guise of a cosmetics programme.”

•Photo shows Governor Aregbesola.

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