After widespread criticism over the inclusion of N5 billion for the renovation of a daycare centre in the 2024 budget of Ondo State, the government has labelled it as a mistake.
Emmanuel Igbasan, the Ondo State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, attributed the error to the document’s printer, calling it a mix-up. Previously, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of using this allocation to gather funds ahead of the upcoming governorship election.
Igbasan, in a statement, said: “The five billion naira provision was actually meant to reflect the expected drawdown from the Nigerian for Women Project (World Bank supported) which had earlier been captured under the capital receipts of the document.
“The N18 million reported on the Nigerian for Women Project is meant for the renovation of a daycare project. This is a regrettable printer’s interpolation error that occurred during the process of preparing the document for publication.
“At the operational level, this error will not materialise and is almost impossible to detect. The Ministry takes full responsibility for this error and we have immediately set the machinery in motion to correct the error.”
