Oyo denies taking N300bn fresh loan, accuses APC of misinformation

The Oyo State Government has denied claims by the All Progressives Congress in the state that Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration has secured a N300 billion “fresh loan.”

The lawmaker representing Saki West State Constituency, Mr. Ibrahim Shittu, has raised concerns about the loan, stating that he was neither informed of the August 19 emergency plenary nor involved in the House’s approval of it for the record.

However, the Oyo State House of Assembly denied the claim.

In a statement dated August 28, shared on X on Friday and signed by the Special Adviser (Media) to Oyo State Governor, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, the government described the claim as “mischievous” and “reckless,” insisting that no such loan was taken.

The statement read, “There is no N300 billion ‘loan.’

“What the House of Assembly approved is: N149 billion for refinancing — this means replacing an older, more expensive loan with a new facility on better terms, thereby reducing the state’s repayment burden.

“N151 billion for infrastructure investment and contractor financing — a structured arrangement that allows the government to fund ongoing and new projects while giving contractors the confidence to deliver on time.”

The government explained that the refinancing plan “is not new borrowing; it is simply responsible financial management,” while contractor financing “ensures that critical projects are completed without choking government cash flow.”

The statement also criticised the APC lawmaker who raised the issue, saying he was “notorious for not attending plenaries” and “in his desperation to mislead the public, claimed that there has been a 500 per cent increase in FAAC allocations to Oyo State.”

“Basic arithmetic would have shown him that the actual increase is about 75 per cent.

“By contrast, the rise in the national minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦80,000 represents an increase of about 170 per cent. That the lawmaker cannot distinguish between a 75 per cent increase and 500 per cent only confirms that he neither understands figures nor governance,” the government noted.

The government contrasted the current administration’s record with that of the APC.

It stated, “It was under its eight years of misrule that Oyo State was reduced to a ‘civil service state,’ with a grounded economy, unpaid salaries, abandoned projects, and suffocating debts.”

According to the statement, the Makinde administration “took tough but strategic financial decisions that moved Oyo State out of the trenches,” adding that Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) “has grown from about N20 billion annually in 2018 under the APC to over N70 billion in 2025 — without overburdening citizens with new taxes.”