The deputy governor of Ondo State, Hon Agboola Ajayi, and the governorship candidate of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) on Friday claimed he earns N12 million naira and not the N13 million claimed by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
This is just as Hon Ajayi has alleged that Governor Akeredolu collects N750 million monthly as security vote.
Reporters At Large earlier reported that Governor Akeredolu said he gave his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, the freedom to operate, but he later betrayed him.
Akeredolu said, “No deputy governor has collected what he was collecting in the history of the state. I gave him N13m monthly; his predecessors did not collect as much as that. No deputy governor collects as much as that in Nigeria. I gave him enough room to operate, yet he betrayed me.”
The deputy governor who had recently fallen out with the governor was reacting to the utterance by the governor claiming he (Ajayi) receives the highest running grant of N13m monthly which is the highest in the country by any deputy governor and yet betrayed him.
Ajayi in his response through his Media Adviser, Allen Sowore, said he is “surprised that the Governor could go to the press announcing the sum of N13m as what the Deputy Governor gets as if it was a gift for the personal use and not for the use of his office.
“The Deputy Governor states that what came to his office until Akeredolu refused to release same was 12million naira per month.
“This includes the imprest of his office, allowances of staff, fuelling of vehicles, care of his residence and welfare of his aides.
“Huge as the amount may appear, it amounts to not so much when the heads and number of individuals it caters for are considered.
“The governor gets a security vote of N750million naira every month. He, Akeredolu, also gets an imprest of about N150 million”
Ajayi also alleged that the wife of the governor and son also collect millions of naira as imprest on monthly basis without occupying any constitutionally recognised positions.
But the governor in his response through his chief Press Secretary Segun Ajiboye described Ajayi as a liar.
Ajiboye in a statement said that “the disclosure by Mr Governor that the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party(ZLP) receives a monthly running grant of N13 million appears to have further emitted the entrenched character of the man in question, Agboola Ajayi.
“True to type, Ajayi has resorted to lies and fabrications that Mr Governor gets a monthly payment of N750m as security vote. This brazen misinformation is not a surprise but a true reflection of the unstable and treacherous content in Ajayi.
“The general public is urged to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act to interrogate both statements by Mr Governor and Ajayi.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the State Bureaucracy which process such payments is very available to confirm the veracity or frivolity of either of the statements.
“The October 10 governorship election is between integrity and the absence of it.
“The patent greed which has provided motivation for the treachery and perfidy of Ajayi appears to have created further paths of dishonesty to oil his political misadventure. Succinctly, he is misled my his mind of greed.
The statement said that “By his antecedents, Agboola Ajayi would have wittingly provided evidence of the payment of such huge amount even before now if it was true.
