A group of political office holders under former governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, has warned Governor Seyi Makinde administration to desist from blackmailing them.

At a press conference at the NUJ Press Centre in Iyaganku, Ibadan, and a statement jointly signed by the former commissioner for Education, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, former special adviser, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Bolaji Tunji and former special assistant, Political Matters, Abiodun Ambali, the group described the litany of allegations against the Ajimobi-led administration as “lies, propaganda and falsehood.”

They said: “It has come to our notice and our investigation has also revealed that there is a deliberate smear campaign against the immediate past administration in the state by apologists of the present administration. This is in order to destroy the legacies of the administration and individually and collectively malign us.

“This carefully-orchestrated propaganda started a few weeks ago when the former administration was accused of awarding the Iseyin-Moniya-Oyo road to a faceless contractor at a cost of N2billion per kilometre, which had been debunked.

“Not only that, the present administration had also falsely alleged that the state had a debt profile of N150billion, which has been confirmed to be incorrect. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) put a lie to this. Total domestic borrowings at end of the Ajimobi administration was just over N90billion, of which about 35 per cent constituted provisions for arrears of pensions and gratuities of civil servants.

“The remainder was made up of bailouts and interventions extended by the federal government to all states to assist government alleviate pains experienced by the populace as a result of the global economic depression and the fall in oil prices.

“However, we have also decided to respond to the current smear campaign about vehicles alleged to have been recovered from some aides and political office holders. As stated, these are orchestrated campaigns of calumny and cheap propaganda aimed at rubbishing the well-known giant achievements of the Ajimobi administration, which we were part of. (The Guardian)

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