Oyo State Govt. opens special bank account for recovered looted money

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, has said that the state government’s account opened with the Unity Bank Plc would be used to save the looted money recovered from ‘wrong hands and accounts’.

Makinde made this disclosure when the management of Unity Bank Plc paid him a courtesy visit at the state secretariat on Wednesday in Ibadan.

According to him, the account will be made open to everybody to avoid the recovered money being looted again.

”We want to recover the money in a very transparent manner and for people to see what the present administration has done with the money recovered.

”People should know how the money belonging to them is being spent. The state money seized from individuals by EFCC will be returned to the account,” he said.

The governor charged the bank to also hold the state accountable because the government should not compromise the trust reposed in it by the people.

He said that his administration was ready to foster partnership with bankers, processors, agriculture and business experts to develop the state.

”Agriculture is one of the pillars that this administration rested on and that is the tool that is intended to be used to expand the economy, Making said.

He assured the bank management that the government would not discriminate against it because it was not among the first big banks but would give equal opportunity to all partners of government.

He urged the bank to expand its network in Ibadan and the entire state in general so that the government would utilise such.

Earlier, Mrs Toyin Somefun, the Managing Director of the bank said that the purpose of the visit was to request for partnership with the new administration under Makinde.

Somefun said the bank wanted to partner with the state in the area of infrastructure, education and agriculture where it had significant milestones.

She said that the bank was number one in Anchored Borrower Scheme, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), ”with an exposure of over N60 billion intervention fund with CBN”.

Somefun said that the bank had financed more than 500 farmers across various commodities such as rice, wheat, cotton, soya and ginger.

-NAN