The Oyo State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has mocked former Governor Rashidi Ladoja for donating N5.8 to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso.
Ladoja made the donation on Friday through an initiative by former students of the institution tagged #fundLAUTECH aimed at raising N1bn to assist the university surmount its crippling financial challenges.
While claiming to commend the former governor for the donation in a statement released on Thursday, an uncharitable APC said the amount donated is too small compared to the N4.7bn the 72-year-old is being tried for.
The party said that the action of the former governor is a subtle way of aligning with the School Governing Board (SGB) model introduced by incumbent Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
SGB is described as a strategic policy of participatory management established to improve academic standards, infrastructural upgrade and teachers’ efficiency in the public secondary schools in the state.
OYO APC Publicity Secretary, Wale Sadare, insists that the staggered donation of N5.8m was too minute compared to the amount involved in the eight-count charge Ladoja is being tried for at the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos presided over by Justice Mohammed Idris.
His words: “Former Governor Ladoja, for the records, is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a N4.7bn fraud. Senator Ladoja is giving back to the society what he has taken from them. There was a time he returned N500m to the coffers of the state and what he is doing again is to use part of Oyo State funds to support the SGB initiative of the present administration in the state.
“We want to state that it is the collective patrimony of the people Oyo State that was mismanaged by Governor Ladoja and his former aides. This took its toll on the economy of the state and a large chunk of it should have been donated to the #fundLAUTECH initiatives.
“We want to appeal to Senator Ladoja and his co-travellers in the Accord Part to thread the path of honour by returning a larger sum of money from the N4.7bn stolen funds to the Oyo state Government coffers. Governor Ajimobi has promised to use 100% of the refund to fund LAUTECH.”
