The lingering political battle between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and Honourable Remmy Hassan took a new turn last week when the member of the Ogun State House of Assembly representing Odogbolu State Constituency took a swipe on the incumbent Governor for not being transparent over the debt profile of the state.

This, which according to him stalled the approval sought by Governor Ibikunle Amosun from the state House of Assembly to source N19 billion loan from three different commercial banks.

Remmy Hazzan who revealed these while fielding questions from some newsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital further disclosed that the members gave 13-point conditions that must be met by the administration before the request could be discussed on the floor of the House.

“All the conditions, which bordered on transparency, include appointment of Director-General for the Debt Management Office formed by two bills proposed by the executive and passed into laws by the Assembly.”

“The details of the state statements of accounts and copy of audited accounts of the state to be submitted by Accountant-General, among others.”

He further emphasised that the requests were not shutdown by the Assembly but rather by the alleged non-transparent nature of the administration.

According to him, if the 13-point conditions had been met and the members saw that the financial status of the state could still accommodate more loans, the request would have been granted expressly.

Commenting on the controversies dogging the real debt profile of the state, the chairman House Committee on Works pegged the state’s debt at over N300 billion contrary to the recent N41 billion declared by Governor Amosun on a live programme on the state Television station.

He punctured the governor’s claim by flaunting and reading through some documents prepared and submitted to the Assembly by the state Commissioner for Finance, Kemi Adeosun in March which gave details of capital projects awarded by the administration.

He noted that some of the projects which were worth billions of naira had been completed but not totally paid for.

Hazzan argued that such debt incurred by the state in addition to the loans sourced directly by the state from banks and capital market shut the debt profile astronomically.

He explained that the governor was only referring to bank loans, but noted that the contractors were funding the contracts with banks money which was granted them having submitted the contract papers signed with them by the state government thereby making the government liable to pay the debt.

Expressing his fear for the successor of Governor Amosun, the two-time lawmaker currently aspiring to represent Odogbolu/Ijebu Ode/Ijebu North East at the House of Representatives seat in 2015 general elections, lamented that debt profile would literally strangulate the next administration and might not be able to achieve so much as anticipated.