Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has disclosed that he travels mostly on family private jets to reduce the state travel bills.
It would be recalled that an online medium published that the expenditure of N3.1billion on domestic and international travels within six months was far above the allocation to other ministries.
However, the governor, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed on Monday, the amount quoted by the medium was the full year training allocation for the over 100 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for the whole of 2025.
According to him, the amount quoted for Governor Adeleke was negligible because the governor footed most of his travel through his family’s private jet, just like the case of his recent trip to the United States of America.
The statement clarified further that many agencies had already undertaken their local and international training in the first half of the year because of the anticipated kick-off of pre-2026 political activities in the latter part of the year.
He said the opposition’s sponsored reports about international travelling and training expenditures are not only misleading but also mischievous.
“The sponsored publication is a failed attempt by the opposition to misrepresent and mischaracterise much-needed expenditure on local and international training programmes for public servants, service-wide facility maintenance costs and several critical overhead expenses across over 100 government agencies. The fact that the state government actually posted those details on her website confirms that there is no foul play or misapplication of state funds.
“The Governor is only the head of the government; there are several other sectoral heads and career officers whose expenditures on travels and training make up the state government expenditure. So it is incorrect to say Governor Adeleke spent so much on travelling. Also, one has to probe the importance of these travels and training and the value it brings to the state now and in the near future,” he said.
He highlighted key international events attended by officials of the Osun State Government in the first half of year 2025 like Commonwealth Business Investment Conference where Governor Adeleke led his team to meet potential partners in the creative sector and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ESG Management Services UK Ltd., a UK investment facilitation firm to source and facilitate investment opportunities from UK-based companies in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, and other strategic areas.
On the issue of fumigation, the statement adds, “the expenditure represents the amount spent by the state to maintain a clean environment across the state secretariat, agency offices, the government house, several state institutions, several health facilities, several state agencies and parastatals, public schools etc.
While reassuring the public of the Governor’s passion for transparency, the Spokesperson said it was the state government that posted the widely quoted figures as a mark of accountability and transparency.
“There are no smoking guns. We urge those interested in full breakdown of the state expenditure to apply for requisite information under the federal Freedom of Information Act,” it added.
