Oyo State Accountant-General, Mrs K. O. Adegoke, has faulted claims by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde that the state lacks the means to pay the N3.4 billion debt owed to former local government area chairmen and councillors he sacked on assuming office on May 29, 2019.
Adegoke’s position is contained in a fresh document filed by one of the state’s bankers before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in a garnishee proceeding initiated by the ex-council chiefs.
The garnishee proceeding was initiated against Makinde, Oyo State and others, following the Dec. 8, 2023 judgment of the Abuja Court of Appeal, ordering the governor to pay the debt, which now stood at N3,425,300,000.
In the court document, the Oyo A-G revealed that there were sufficient funds in the state’s account with First Bank of Nigeria Limited and that the bank had been directed to set aside the N3,425,300,000 for the settlement of the outstanding judgment debt.
The Supreme Court had, in a judgement on May 7, 2021, declared Makinde’s sack of the council officials, before the end of their three-year tenure, as unlawful.
The apex court also ordered him to pay them the salaries and allowances they ought to have earned for the tenure, which the Oyo State Government later estimated at N4,874,889,425.60.
The governor authorised the payment of N1.5 billion in 2022, leaving an outstanding sum of N3,374,889,425.60.
Makinde later applied to the High Court of the FCT, via a motion filed on April 3, 2023, praying to be allowed to pay the outstanding debt in instalment of N300 million every six months, a request Justice Anote Ebong rejected.
He had, in the motion, claimed among others, that Oyo State had no resources to pay the judgment debt and that the state would be unable to meet its obligations should the debt be paid in a manner different from what he proposed.