FOLLOWING claim by Akinola Ojo, Oyo State Commissioner for Finance that the University Teaching Hospital (UCH) benefited from the state’s government COVID-19 fund, the management of the hospital insists no dime was received from the state government.
The Commissioner had on Tuesday during a press conference held in Ibadan to give account of how the state government expended the COVID-19 fund said that the Teaching Hospital received N118 million from the government.
But while reacting to the claim, Toye Akinrinlola, UCH’s Public Relations Officer, told The ICIR in a telephone interview that the hospital didn’t receive any money from Oyo State government.
“Yes, the management of UCH didn’t receive any money from the Oyo State government,” Akinrinlola stated.
He further said that he had issued a press statement earlier in which the management of the hospital denied ever collecting any money from the state government to fight COVID-19
“We have made our position known in a press release and we are still standing by it,” he said.
It would be recalled that Oyo State government had said that it has spent a sum of spent N2.8 billion in fighting against coronavirus pandemic.
While giving the breakdown of how the money was spent, Ojo, the state’s Commissioner for Finance disclosed that UCH was given a sum of N118 million.
Meanwhile, Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, when contacted by The ICIR stated that the government would soon come out with its position on the claim made by the management of UCH.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.