Adeleke denies spending N3.1bn on foreign trips

Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has dismissed as false and misleading recent media reports alleging that his administration spent N3.1 billion on foreign trips between January and June 2025.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, on Monday, the governor reaffirmed his commitment to fiscal transparency and accountability, insisting that the figures being circulated have been misrepresented to paint a distorted picture of his administration’s travel spending.

Governor Adeleke clarified that the funds in question were not allocated solely for his personal travel but covered the entire state government’s training and capacity-building activities, both local and international, undertaken by more than 100 agencies within the government.

“Contrary to the misleading narrative, the stated amount represents a near full-year training budget for Osun State’s ministries, departments, and agencies,” the statement noted.

“This includes costs for transportation, accommodation, feeding, and other logistics for commissioners, permanent secretaries, directors, agency heads, and staff of tertiary institutions,” he added.
The statement emphasized that many of these training programmes were scheduled in the first half of the year to avoid potential disruptions from political activities expected to begin in the second half of 2025.

It also pointed out that Governor Adeleke has often used a family-owned private jet to cut down on the government’s travel costs, citing his recent visit to the United States as an example of his personal commitment to reducing public expenditure.

Olawale described the allegation that the governor personally incurred N3.1 billion in travel costs as “mischievous and unfounded,” urging the public to disregard the reports.