Gov Aiyedatiwa

The Ondo State government has reacted to the backlash it received after it was disclosed that ₦5 billion was budgeted for the renovation of a daycare in the 2024 budget.

The Ondo State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Emmanuel Igbasan stated that it was a mix-up.

He blamed the printer of the document for making such an error.

Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had accused the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, of purportedly using that as an avenue to mop up funds ahead of the forthcoming governorship election.

However, speaking via a statement, Igbasan said that the ₦5 billion was meant to capture a ‘women project’ supported by the World Bank.

According to him, “The five billion naira provision was actually meant to reflect the expected drawdown from the Nigerian for Women Project (World Bank supported) which had earlier been captured under the capital receipts of the document.

“At the operational level, this error will not materialise and is almost impossible to detect. The Ministry takes full responsibility for this error and we have immediately set in motion the machinery to have the error corrected.”