The Osun State Government has said that the State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, uses the private jet of his billionaire brother, Dr Adedeji Adeleke, for official trips free of charge.
Adedeji Adeleke is the father of Afrobeat star, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido and also the brother of the Osun Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
The State Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, told SaharaReporters on Monday that since the Governor assumed office, neither the Governor nor the State Government has paid Dr. Adedeji Adeleke any money for the Governor’s use of his private jet for his trips.
According to Alimi, the younger Adeleke had been using his brother’s private jet for his trips before he became the State Governor.
He said, “Up till this moment, Dr Deji Adeleke has never collected a dime over that plane. Before Governor Ademola Adeleke became the governor, he was using the plane. He is family.
“He still lives in his house as the Government House is under renovation. There is nothing like any payment being made to Dr Deji Adeleke The Government has not paid a dime for the Governor to use the plane. It is also being maintained from their personal pocket.”
When if that means no money is budgeted for Governor Adeleke’s official trips, the commissioner said, “There have been budgets for the governor’s trip. But when they say ‘budget for the governor’s trip’, it means allowance for those following him.”
He said the budgets for the Governor’s trips go beyond the Governor as an individual, pointing out that allowances for his security personnel, protocol officials, press crew and others who travel with him are involved.
“When they say the Governor’s budget for trips, it does not really mean individual. The Governor may forgo his own but the security personnel, the protocol people, all those people who follow the Governor, their entitlements will form part of it.
“As per the Governor, so far, for his own trips, when he used his brother’s jet or anything belonging to his brother, Dr. Deji never collected any money,” Alimi said.
Tragedy was averted about two weeks ago when a private jet owned by Adedeji Adeleke, made a cracking noise while it was about to take off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, with Governor Adeleke and his aides on board.
The trip was consequently aborted.
