A couple of days ago, when I wrote that Governor Makinde has taken up a fight in a wrong terrain as a result of the Media chat he held and that he would forever regret that indiscretion, his soldier ants went into a frenzy.
One of them angrily replied to my story by saying that I am experiencing what he called ‘ a meltdown ‘ whatever he meant by that.
I wasn’t angry at the fellow, who I must confess that I do not even know.
I was sure that subsequent events will hit him like a thunderbolt and when they do, he would lose the face and appetite to keep defending Governor Makinde blindly.
Governor Makinde’s admirers have been hitting their heads against each other, trying to defend the allegations of the receipt of 50 billion Naira made against him by former Governor Ayo Fayose.
I will concern myself with the official responses from the Government.
Yesterday, it was reported that Governor Makinde’s Chief Press secretary, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju addressed the Press on the matter and I will quote him directly.
Olanrewaju described the allegations as ” baseless” and went further to challenge Fayose to provide evidence to support the allegations.
He was of the opinion that ” Fayose lacks credibility and should not be taken seriously”.
According to him, the ” presidency made no such donations to Oyo state and there is no substance whatsoever to that claim”.
During his ‘Press briefing of yesterday, Olanrewaju did not clarify that Governor Makinde received the sum of 30 billion Naira from Tinubu.
He was emphatic that Fayose was lying outrightly and should be ignored.
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At that point, attention shifted to Fayose.
Makinde has denied the allegations. Fayose must provide proof and he did not disappoint.
Fayose, in the early hours of Sunday, the 28th of December, 2025, published a memo from the office of the Accountant general of the Federation which clearly showed that the sum of 50 billion Naira was actually requested by the Oyo state Government as intervention funding support with respect to the Bodija explosion.
According to paragraph 1 of the memo, several States of the Federation submitted requests for interventions and support totalling 915.5 billion Naira.
Paragraph 3 of the memo is of particular interest and I will quote verbatim.
It reads, ” The Honorable Minister may wish to further note from the schedule that the sum of 459.7 billion Naira was disbursed, leaving outstanding balance of 464.7 billion Naira as outlined below”.
A table of contents immediately followed paragraph 3 and from that table, it is evident that Oyo state Government actually requested for the sum of 50 billion Naira.
I will come back to that document but immediately it was released, the onus shifted to Governor Makinde to make clarifications and he did.
Once again, through his Chief Press secretary, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju.
When I saw the draft of the press release this evening I had to exercise restraints.
After reading through the draft, I thought it must be fake because the contents are a complete opposite of the contents of his Press briefings of Saturday, 27th of December, 2025.
I asked myself if it was possible for a Government to release two outrightly contrasting statements on a particular issue within a period of 24 hours?
Let us now examine Governor Makinde’s response to the document released by Fayose.
Olanrewaju said that the Federal Government did not give Governor Makinde 50 billion Naira as claimed by Fayose.
He said that is why Fayose could not provide evidence to show the disbursement when asked to do so.
When he said this, I thought he would proceed on that line of argument and perhaps show us some documents that would support his ascertions but I was in for a shock.
Olanrewaju went on to say that ” what exist on record is a request and a promise , not a disbursement of 50 billion”.
Continuing, he said,” President Tinubu did not visit Oyo state when the explosion occured”.
He now repeated the fact that” a promise is however not a release”, before hitting the spot.
He said, “… When it was time to act, only 30 billion was released”!
According to him, ” the partial release was accompanied by demands for inducements tied to the disbursement of the balance”!!
He said “Governor Makinde refused to comply with the request for inducements and as a result of this, the balance of 20 billion Naira was not released”.
He now asked rhetorically, ” if the Governor was expected to have called a Press conference to announce that the Federal Government had promised 50 billion Naira but released 30 billion Naira, while withholding the balance of 20 billion Naira?
He went further to explain the reasons why the Government quoted the sum of 4.5 billion Naira as the money disbursed to the victims of the Bodija explosion.
If you put the latest statement from the Government beside that of Saturday, you will notice that they do not align.
On Saturday, Governor Makinde, through his CPS denied completely that any transaction happened between the Oyo state Government and the Federal Government with regard to the Bodija explosion.
Oyo state Government called the allegation baseless.
They also said there was no substance to that claim.
I remember asking the Oyo state Government to disclose if it received any amount of money from the Federal Government, even if it is not 50 billion Naira.
I recollect that an admirer of Governor Seyi Makinde took me up on a WhatsApp group this morning regarding that write up.
He was beating his chest, claiming that Governor Makinde got nothing from the Federal Government.
I wonder how he would feel now that the Governor has admitted to taking 30 billion Naira.
Sadly, it required a Federal Government memo from Fayose for Governor Makinde to accept for the first time that he received a whopping sum of 30 billion Naira from Tinubu.
I see that Olanrewaju tried without success to trivialize the circumstances around the receipt of the 30 billion Naira and how it was spent.
Honestly, I pity Governor Makinde’s spokesperson.
Incidentally, they say he is a Pastor.
How comfortable could a Pastor feel, changing his positions on a very sensitive matter within 24 hours?
It must have been very difficult if truly the CPS is a man of God.
The attempt to blame Tinubu for failing to visit Oyo state when the explosion occured is not only belated, it is immaterial at the present moment.
I am also amused that Governor Makinde still finds it funny to accuse some officials of the Federal Government allegedly asking for inducements before a balance of 20 billion could be released.
The allegations coming up at this moment is a diversionary tactics.
Who are the unnamed officials asking for inducements?
Why didn’t Governor Makinde report them to appropriate authorities at the time?
I was terribly annoyed when Olanrewaju asked if Governor Makinde should have called a Press conference to brief the public about the funds.
Why not?
The funds in question belongs to the public.
Don’t they deserve correct information about it?
Now that Governor Makinde has been forced to accept that he actually received the sum of 30 billion Naira from Tinubu in support of the Bodija explosion victims, he does have a lot of questions to answer.
Governor Fayose said that the money was not received into Oyo state Government accounts.
Governor Makinde must provide information about the accounts with which the money was received.
Not only that, the committee set up by Governor Makinde for the purpose of disbursing the money must also come out to tell the public how the 30 billion Naira was disbursed.
The explanations around the initial quoted figure of 4.5 billion Naira as being the figure disbursed by the Oyo state Government lacks merits.
Governor Makinde must provide detailed reports of how the 30 billion Naira was received and disbursed to the last Kobo.
I give kudos to former Governor Ayodele Fayose.
His intervention is timely and of immense help.
I do not agree with Governor Makinde that Fayose lacks credibility.
I will rather believe the fact that it is actually the Governor of Oyo state who is lacking in credibility from the manner he has handled this matter.
I pity people like Qudus Olayide who claimed to be the coordinator of Oyo PDP Visioners. ( That is if they truly exist).
I read a story credited to them where they were calling Fayose all manner of names.
I don’t know when some people will accept the fact that if you value your dignity, do not defend Governor Makinde blindly.
I watched the video of Governor Makinde where he was castigating someone during a Media chat recently.
He accused the individual of taking a contract without executing the contract.
Some minutes later, in the course of the program, his attention was called to the fact that the individual in question had actually executed the contract and he was indeed a spectacle while eating his words and forcing an apology.
Governor Makinde who kept making empty promises to the people of Eruwa about the 48 klm Ido/Eruwa road?
I pity those who have been jumping from one WhatsApp group to the other, abusing Fayose and everyone who kept demanding accountability from the Governor.
These are tough times for Governor Makinde’s soldier ants.
Sola Abegunde.
