The All Progressives Congress (APC) chapter in Osun State has accused state governor Ademola Adeleke of utilizing deceit and distracting strategies to manage the affairs of the state.
It went on to say that the current situation in the state is evidence that Adeleke, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), may have unknowingly used sweet language to persuade state government employees to believe in his leadership.
Recall that Adeleke had attributed the failure of his administration to pay, with the March salaries, the cashbacking of the promotions arrears of the government employees affected by his predecessor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, on a miscalculation by the salary officials, as the governor had earlier pledged.
In response, the APC’s acting chairman for Osun State, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, said in a statement released today in Osogbo by the party’s director of media and information, Chief Kola Olabisi, that Adeleke’s justification for not being able to carry out the cashbacking of the workers’ promotion arrears was not true and was instead just a ruse to further mislead the labor.
Lawal said, “as a responsible and responsive opposition party, we make bold to say that it was not true that there were miscalculations by salary officers.
“The fact remains that the prodigal administration of Adeleke has exhausted everything in the kitty. The workers have entered a proverbial one chance vehicle.
“It was reliably gathered that the computation was done and correctly done. When it was collated with the March salaries, the governor discovered that they had less fund to underwrite it.
“Hence, Adeleke directed that it should be put on hold till the next allocation. In order to cover the shame, the bureaucrats were asked to divert the attention of the public by putting the blame of commision of errors in computation on salary officers. That was not the truth. It was a diversion.
“It is saddening that the Adeleke administration could be fabricating lies about the livelihood of the people in the month of Ramadan and Lenten season without any iota of sympathy for the expectant workers.
“It is now a public knowledge that the pensioners on contributory pensions who have been promised monthly payment of their arrears of half salaries that are yet to be paid for the month of March have started brooding to the extent that some of them have been sending weird messages to Chief (Mrs) Dupe Adeleke-Sanni, to call his brother, Ademola, to order.
“It was disgusting to learn that the pensioners who relied on their half salaries for the celebration of Easter festivity were utterly and sorely disappointed.
“Some of the leaders of the disappointed and disenchanted pensioners are already regretting their blind support for the Adelekes.
“If the state treasury could be emptied by Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers barely under four months of his government, a worthy medal should be presented to Oyetola who diligently and frugally managed the finances of the state for four years without any hindrance despite the obvious paucity of funds.
“We want to also make it abundantly clear that the N1.5 billion bond extended to the Contributory pensioners by the Adeleke administration was only made possible because of Oyetola’s decision not to tamper with the remittances of the pensioners. If he had not ensured steady remittances, there was no way the extravagant Adeleke’s administration could have saved N1.5billion under three months,” Lawal disclosed.