Following the non-payment of the salaries of workers in Osun State running into eight months, stakeholders in the state have berated Governor Rauf Aregbesola for literally turning the state into a failed state. Though the governor promised to pay the salaries of the workers by the end of the month without specifying whether all the salaries or part of it will be settled, the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) described Aregbesola as a serial liar while a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in the state, Chief Ebenezer Babatope accused the governor of emptying the treasury of the state on his re-election bid.
CHRSJ Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman described Governor Aregbesola as a serial and pathological liar who always rebrand lies for the people of the State on the financial status of the state insisting that since becoming governor, Aregbesola has been economical with the truth on the loan incurred by his administration. According to him, only sincerity of purpose and simple truth with the good people of the state could save the present administration from the present mess, advising Aregbesola to come out with the total figure of the debt incurred by the state government and 30 local governments areas in the state adding that he should let the people know what they used the loan for. He urged the governor to publicly publish the figure of the loan and the financial institution that gave the state such loan in order to discourage the people of the state from believing the figures given out by members of the opposition in the state. On the position of the former Deputy Governor of the State, Senator Iyiola Omisore that Aregbesola incurred N480bn loan, Sulaiman maintained that larger percentage of the people of the State had lost trust and confidence in the present government due to serial lies that characterized the government in all ramifications.
He condemned the debt regime that Aregbesola has plunged the state into and non-payment of workers’ salaries and retirees for period of seven to eight months now. It is better for Aregbesola to come out openly through national dailies to let the people of the state know the actual debt of the state and the financial institutions where they procured the loan as well as what they used the loan for. “Governor Aregbesola should not also hesitate to explain to the public what he does with the Cooperative loan deductions of Civil Servants and LAUTECHTH staff, Sure-P fund, SUBEB fund, Pension Contributory Scheme fund, Ecological fund and host of others. We can authoritatively say that Governor Rauf Aregbesola has a hidden agenda on the financial crisis presently facing the State and this development alone shows that Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is a serial and pathological liar,” he said. CHRSJ boss accused Governor Aregbesola of wasteful spending, misappropriation of Osun resources on frivolities such as Cuba trip, maintenance of helicopter with its pilot and others, asking why Teachers at the Primary School and local government staff were still being owing to the tune of four months after the Federal government had paid their salaries till May 2015? Sulaiman called on President Muhammadu Buhari to beam searchlight on how the affected states siphon their allocation into the private pocket of few individuals before giving them one month salary rescue as being planned by the Federal government, as part of his government anti-corruption effort. He condemned Aregbesola for running the state aground by subjecting it into borrowing to pay her workforce, a development that Aregbesola campaigned against during Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s administration while struggling to reclaim his mandate in 2010. Chief Babatope, a former Minister of Transport accused Aregbesola, of exhausting the states’ treasury on his re-election campaign, hence his inability to pay workers salary adding that the aftermath of the overspent money during the election is having a terrible effect on the economy of the state. According to him, “Aregbesola borrowed a lot of money to fund his re-election and he is now trying to pay back the loan, hence his inability to pay salaries of workers. He overspent himself and I am very sorry for Osun State. “He spent so much during the election and we are afraid that in the next nine months, it will be extremely difficult for the APC government in Osun State to pay salaries of staff. “I concede to him the fact that he has every right to spend as much money as he wants to, but I am saying that there is much punishment that he would get economically with the overspending. “I am only sorry and very unhappy for Osun public officers and civil servants who are going to bear the brunt of all these things”. Also, the PDP) in the state has urged Aregbesola to immediately call a stakeholders meeting that will involve members of all registered political parties in the state to address various problems especially issues related to unpaid salaries of civil servants in the state.
In a statement, the PDP said one of the reasons Governor Aregbsola is finding governing the state “a task bigger than his capacity” is because he shut out quality advice from Osun stakeholders because they are not registered members of APC. “We said it before that because Ogbeni Aregbesola never lived in Osun before becoming the governor he has no idea of the needs of the people of the state”, PDP said. The party said it welcomed open confession by the governor that the inability of his administration to pay workers was a problem beyond his capacity, adding that he should as a matter of urgency call stakeholders meeting to allow Osun people to identify immediate and remote causes of many challenges facing the state and seek solutions to them. “Aregbesola did not care about our advice as major stakeholders because we are in PDP, no Osun indigene home and abroad is happy with the mess we are in as a result of non payment of salaries. The unpaid salaries has put people in very difficult situation economic wise just as people are dying of hunger”, the party insisted. According to PDP: “But there was nothing we could do when Mr. Aregbesola shut his ears to candid advice and surrounded self with many “imported Lagos based commissioners and advisers. “However, now that he has reached his limit in managing affairs of Osun and openly confessed this, it then behoves on us to lend helping hands by offering quality advise”, the party concluded.
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