Voice Air Media News Update

THE Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted Governor Ademola Adeleke over his reason for the administration’s inability to pay the March salaries of the government workers in the state as and when due.

The APC opposition party has described the reason for the delay in the payment of the March salaries as flimsy, untenable, sleazy and skanky which is skillfully fabricated by the governor and his co-travellers to deceive the unsuspecting government workers in the state.

It would be recalled that Gov Adeleke stated in a statement yesterday that the delay in the payment of the March salaries by his government was due to the fact that it intends to pay same with promotion arrears of the workers.

Reacting to the development, the Osun State Acting Chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, the state capital today, observed that Adeleke is only trying to be clever by half with his flimsy reasons, saying the governor has failed in one of his campaign promises to be paying the state workers their salaries latest on the 26th of each month.

Lawal, who noted that Oyetola also paid promotion arrears he inherited, questioned how many of such salaries has Adeleke paid that his government has ceased breathing midway like a proverbial smoke?

In Lawal’s words: “A gentleman’s bond is his words. It would be recalled that Adeleke promised heaven on heart during the governorship campaign that he would never exceed 26th of the month before he pays the workers’.

“The reality on the ground now is that Adeleke has blown on frivolities all the funds that he inherited from his predecessor and those that accrued to his government to the extent that he cannot pay the salaries of the workers again as and when due.

“Adeleke is stylishly awaiting March federal allocation from Abuja before he could accomplish his governmental obligations with reference to the payment of the workers’ salaries.

“Lawal queried the nexus between the payment of promotion arrears of staff and payment of the staff salaries which is a statutory monthly obligation of any government?

“Adeleke should give kudos to Oyetola for his relentlessness in the prompt payment of the state workers’ full salaries uninterruptedly for four solid years as and when due even before the Federal Allocation came in.

“The prevailing precarious financial situation in the state which is culminating into the inability of Adeleke to continue to pay the workers is enough to come to terms with the fact that the head of an elephant is not a load that can be carried by a young person.

“Why would the entire retirees and some of the civil servants who are not beneficiaries of the promotion be made to suffer the delay in the payment of salaries of March under the minimalist administration of Adeleke?

“This development points to the fact that Adeleke lacks the wherewithal to successfully run the administration of Osun State which is manifesting through his continuous emotional unplanned mode of governance”, Lawal stated.

However, Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has carpeted Osun state All Progressives Congress (APC) over its comments on the March salary, declaring that the state APC is financially illiterate, hence its gullible reaction on the state’s finance.

This was contained in a release signed by Osun PDP Acting chairman,Dr Adekunle Akindele on Saturday.

The release partly reads “Governor Adeleke is a leader who has kept every promise he made to the people of Osun state. Widely named “a talk and do Governor,” Governor Adeleke’s popularity has moved from 70 percent to over 90 percent in the last three months. His job approval rating is beyond 80 percent. APC rating is below 10 percent, as evidenced by recent surveys and outcome of recent elections.

“Osun state workers understand the imperative of the delay from last week as it was meant to serve their interest to ensure payment of their long-awaited promotion arrears, which the last APC government denied them. They know they will soon start receiving alerts from Monday.

“Workers across the sector are appreciative of Governor Ademola Adeleke’s innovative and shrewd handling of state’s finance, which addresses the basic needs of the people and attends to the critical infrastructural needs of the state.

“After failing for four years to pay the promotion arrears, contributory pensions and the half salary of workers in Osun state, the APC is shamed by the sterling records of Adeleke’s administration which include clearing all the messy legacy of the previous government. This explains its unfounded vituperations and false alarm on Osun finance.

“I want to assure the shameless APC leadership that the Adeleke administration is managing Osun resources very judiciously with the best interest of the people at heart. PDP Government is not a sadist led government of Gboyega Oyetola, which thrived in human wickedness and man’s inhumanity to man.

“The PDP government met a state already run aground by the APC but is now with ingenuity taking the state out of doldrums by focusing on human development, revival of abandoned infrastructure and delivery of urgent social services like water and health services.

“Osun APC peopled by men and women of wicked characters boldly rejected by the people of Osun state should apologize to Osun people for the years of locust it foisted on the state and learn lessons of good governance from a Governor who had done more for the people under three months than the four years of Oyetola in power.”