Akeredolu, who was answering questions from the public as parts of the celebration of his one year in office on Saturday night said the treasury of the state was empty as at the time he assumed office as the sixth executive governor of the state.

When asked to respond to an allegation that he was shielding Mimiko from probe because of their friendship, he said although Mimiko was his friend but he never shielded his administration as Mimiko left an empty government despite a claim by the former governor’s aide that the past government left N20billion in the coffer.

Besides, Akeredolu said Mimiko should explain why he did not pay salary for seven months before his tenure expired if actually he left N20billion in government’s coffer. He said: “Yes, Mimiko is my friend; I cannot deny him because politics will come and go but your friend will remain your friend. He knows me, I know him; he knows that there is no way I could cover up or hide anything.

“I have made it clear what we met on ground and the problem we are facing I enumerated the financial deficit we met on ground that came up to N220billion, the state was in debt. So, in that sense, there is no way I can cover anybody.”

Akeredolu, however, cleared the air on why he would always oppose the much touted local government autonomy, describing it not practicable even as he said he never promised to support local government autonomy during his electioneering campaign to become the governor of the state. He said: “I never said I will support local government autonomy during my campaign. We must handle local government autonomy with caution because Nigeria has only the federal and state as federating units.”