By Funmi Branco
A familiar falsehood is making the rounds again, this time dressed up as commentary in an article titled “Governor Dapo Abiodun and His Greek Gift.” Published across multiple online platforms, the piece attempts to discredit Governor Dapo Abiodun by recycling allegations about local government finances that have already been thoroughly debunked.
The author claims that despite the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy, nothing has changed, and then proceeds—without evidence—to pin the blame on the Ogun State Governor. No documents are cited. No financial records are referenced. What the reader gets instead is anger, insinuation, and recycled talking points.
This script is not new. In August 2023, similar allegations were made by a former local government chairman who claimed that Ogun LGs had received zero allocation from the Federation Account since 2021. When challenged, no proof was produced. Official records showed that Governor Abiodun was not a signatory to LG accounts and had no direct access to their funds.
More damaging to the claim is the position of the Joint Account and Allocation Committee (JAAC), the legally constituted body responsible for disbursing LG funds in Ogun State. JAAC confirmed that allocations approved at its monthly meetings were paid into local government accounts and that these meetings were attended by chairmen, commissioners, labour leaders, and other statutory stakeholders. The same accuser attended several of these meetings without raising any alarm at the time.
What critics conveniently ignore is that during the COVID-19 years, federal allocations were insufficient to pay salaries and pensions. Instead of exploiting the situation, the Ogun State Government stepped in to support the councils, covering funding gaps running into billions of naira.
Governor Abiodun’s record of intervention is consistent: student support payments, transport reforms through CNG-powered buses and tricycles, and other cost-of-living measures introduced long before national subsidy removal.
Yet, the presentation of utility vehicles to local government chairmen has now been twisted into another conspiracy theory. Facts are replaced with florid language and innuendo, all aimed at sustaining a political narrative that evidence no longer supports.
This is not accountability journalism. It is political propaganda—loud, repetitive, and empty.
