‘Akeredolu has reduced PDP’s inherited N220bn debt’

Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

Ondo State Government has disclosed it has reduced the N220 billion debt inherited from the immediate past administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by over 50 percent. 

The government said it has also shore up the Internally General Revenue (IGR) of the state from N700 million inherited from the PDP administration to over N1 billion monthly.

Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, made this known when he featured on Channels Television current affairs programme, Sunrise Daily, yesterday.

The commissioner said the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s administration signed a pact with the people to ensure all-round development in the three senatorial districts of the state.

According to the government spokesperson, the Akeredolu administration has been unrelenting in its efforts to use industrialisation to drive the fortunes of the state, particularly on improved IGR.

Asked whether the N30 billion bond which the state sought to borrow won’t put Ondo in more debt as being insinuated by the PDP, Ojogo explained that since the government wasn’t sourcing for loans from banks or any other means other than the capital market, the loans will be sorted in line with extant financial provisions.

This is even as he disclosed that six out of the seven months unpaid salary inherited from the immediate past PDP administration has been cleared.

He said: “Our resolve as a government is that by the time we leave office in the next five years, I said in the next five years because the governor is going to re-contest and win by God’s grace, we hope to leave the government without debt for the incoming administration after our two terms.

“The PDP will not deny the fact that we are constructing a flyover in Ore, we have levelled up a hill in Ikare and made it dual carriage way, we are changing the face of Akure with massive infrastructure, “ he said.

On the minimum wage, the commissioner said the state government’s approach to the payment was unique, adding that unlike some states, the government has agreed to pay the N30,000 new minimum wage and leave bonus separately.

He said the Akeredolu’s administration will remain workers’ friendly.