Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has said there is no link between the state and the donation of N1bn to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church by his brother Deji Adeleke.
Reacting through a statement by his Spokesperson on Saturday, Governor Adeleke said the donation of the said sum was a private philanthropic gesture by his business mogul elder brother.
DAILY POST had reported that the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state had criticised the donation of N1bn by the governor, Ademola Adeleke and his siblings to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos.
The party in a statement by its state chairman, Tajudeen Lawal criticised Governor Adeleke for donating such a sum at a time the state is in dire need of what it takes to be christened a solvent sub-national.
The governor also said he did not donate the said fund and that the donation was not sourced from the state’s treasury.
The governor also accused the state APC of running out of ideas, hence the resort to barefaced lies and fake news on an event globally live-streamed and a donation personally made by Dr Deji Adeleke.
He said, “Let us all recall that Dr Adeleke made substantial donations to the state government under the Oyetola administration during the COVID crisis. Was Governor Adeleke in office then?”
“Dr Adeleke also hugely contributed to the Federal Government during the Covid crisis. Was Governor Adeleke in charge of the Osun treasury then?”
“At the event in Lagos, neither the state government nor the state Governor made any donation. The only donation came from Dr Adeleke who is more than capable of doing so as he had done to APC governments when Mr Oyetola and Muhammadu Buhari were in office.”
He also maintained that attempts by the state APC to play the religious card also fell flat because the Muslim community knows it is benefiting more from his administration than under the previous APC government.
“The Osun APC is daily hallucinating as it has become overwhelmed by the superlative performances.
“The other time, the opposition, shocked by wholesale validation of Osun infrastructure projects by the engineering community, ignorantly lambasted the highly professional and credible COREN/NSE team. Meanwhile, NSE had conducted similar exercises in the
APC states of Lagos and Ogun.
“We seek to put this unnecessary debate to rest by clarifying once again that neither the state government nor the state Governor donated the said One Billion naira to the Lagos church. We add too that the said money is not being sourced from the state treasury. And we conclude by affirming that the philanthropist who made the donation had made even bigger donations in the past and even to the APC government to address the state emergency.”
Governor Adeleke urged members of the public to ignore the fake news merchants in the state.