The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has picked hole in the manner of donation of N1 billion by Governor Ademola Adeleke and his siblings to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos at a time the state is in dire need of what it takes to be christened a solvent sub-national.
It would be recalled that the donation of a billion naira was announced to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos in remembrance of the late mother of the Adelekes, the late Easter Adeleke, who was a prominent member of the Church during her life time.
The donation has generated a lot of furore among both the lowly and highly placed members of the society, questioning the rationale behind such squandering of the questionable resources by Governor Adeleke and his siblings at a time that there are many pressing government obligations crying for monetary attention in the state.
In his own remark, the Osun State chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, today, said everything was morally wrong with the donation of such a huge sum of money on frivolities by Governor Adeleke and his siblings.
Lawal stated that while his party, the APC, is not in anyway opposed to the support of religious groups by any individual(s) or a group of people, it is however, pertinent that such should be done with utmost touch of decency.
He explained further that the timing of the donation while Governor Adeleke is still the chief executive of the state made it to be susceptible to the conclusion by the right-thinking members of the society that the huge donation of the N1 billion was coughed out of the common patrimony of the state.
Lawal who stated that it would interest the people of the state who are the real owners of the state fund of which Governor Adeleke is only its caretaker, to know why it is during the tenure of the governor that it occured to the Adeleke siblings that they should donate the money to their late mother’s church.
He maintained that the development signposts the fact that Governor Adeleke either lacks good and credible advisers or he refused to hearken to the advice of his numerous Advisers which history has it as the only governor parading the highest number of Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants in Nigeria today.
In the state APC chairman’s words: “It won’t be an overstatement to state that it was from the scarce resources of the Osun State fund that Governor Adeleke used as a mega donation in the remembrance of his mother in a church in Lagos.
“We, as a party, are not objecting to the extension of a helping hand to religious houses by either individuals, corporate bodies or political functionaries but it is our candid view that decency and morality should not be sacrificed on the altar of charity.
“While we consider it needless to comment on the overburdened queer manner of the governor’s comportment in the public which is at variance with his exalted position as number one citizen in Osun State, Governor Adeleke would save us the collective shame of wriggling his frame at the striking of two objects just the way he did at the Cherubim and Seraphim Church where he went to on his donation spree at a time he is yet to state any convincing statement on the N70,000.00 minimum wage for government workers in the state as approved by the Federal Government”, the state APC chairman stated.
e-SIGNED:
Sooko TAJUDEEN LAWAL, Chairman, Osun State APC
