‘This Is A Budget Of Looting’ – Opposition Lament As Aiyedatiwa Allocates ₦200 Million For Phone Calls

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has described the recently signed 2025 state budget as a budget of looting.

TrackNews Media reports that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa signed the ₦698.6 billion budget into law a week after its passage by the state House of Assembly.

These include ₦200 million for lawmakers and ₦280 million for the Ondo State House of Assembly Speaker for “phone expenses.”

However, speaking via a statement on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, the opposition party insisted that the allocations were outrageous and unnecessary.

Peretei said, “The Ondo State 2025 Appropriation Act, signed by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, is aptly a ‘Budget of Looting.’ Yet, the Governor branded it a ‘Budget of Recovery”

The PDP also queried the allocation of ₦11.5 billion to the Ministry of Finance under the subhead of “security vote,” stating that such an amount is unjustifiable and raises serious concerns about accountability.

“Not even budget experts can explain the rationale for a Ministry receiving a ‘security vote,’ which is distinct from what the Governor himself collects monthly under the same subhead,” the statement added.

The PDP further called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate what it termed the “brazen looting” embedded in the budget.

However, the Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress dismissed the PDP’s allegations as baseless and a misrepresentation of facts.

In a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Steve Otaloro, the APC argued that the budget was designed to foster economic growth and development in the state.

“The allocations are in line with the state’s development priorities. The PDP’s claims are nothing more than an attempt to discredit the administration out of bitterness for losing the last governorship election,” Otaloro said.