Oyo Govt Dismisses ₦300bn Loan Allegation, Accuses APC Lawmaker of Recklessness

The Oyo State Government has refuted claims by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that Governor Seyi Makinde plans on securing a ₦300 billion “fresh loan.”

The lawmaker representing Saki West State Constituency, Ibrahim Shittu, had raised concerns about the loan, stating that he was neither informed of the August 19 emergency plenary nor involved in the House’s approval of it for the record.

However, the Oyo State House of Assembly denied the claim.

Speaking through a statement, the Special Adviser (Media) to Oyo State Governor, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, described the allegation as “mischievous” and “reckless,” insisting that no such loan was taken.

The statement read, “There is no ₦300 billion ‘loan.’

“What the House of Assembly approved is: ₦149 billion for refinancing, this means replacing an older, more expensive loan with a new facility on better terms, thereby reducing the state’s repayment burden.

“₦151 billion for infrastructure investment and contractor financing, a structured arrangement that allows the government to fund ongoing and new projects while giving contractors the confidence to deliver on time.”

The government explained that the refinancing plan “is not new borrowing; it is simply responsible financial management,” while contractor financing “ensures that critical projects are completed without choking government cash flow.”

The statement also criticised the APC lawmaker who raised the issue, saying he was “notorious for not attending plenaries” and “in his desperation to mislead the public, claimed that there has been a 500 percent increase in FAAC allocations to Oyo State.”

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Basic arithmetic would have shown him that the actual increase is about 75 percent.

“By contrast, the rise in the national minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦80,000 represents an increase of about 170 percent. That the lawmaker cannot distinguish between a 75 percent increase and 500 percent only confirms that he neither understands figures nor governance,” the government noted.

The government contrasted the current administration’s record with that of the APC.

It stated, “It was under its eight years of misrule that Oyo State was reduced to a ‘civil service state,’ with a grounded economy, unpaid salaries, abandoned projects, and suffocating debts.”

The statement said the Makinde administration “took tough but strategic financial decisions that moved Oyo State out of the trenches.”