APC and PDP are at odds in Osun over SURE-P funds and rice distribution
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has requested information from the state house of assembly regarding why Ademola Adeleke, the state’s governor, decided to withhold all of Gboyega Oyetola’s political appointees’ November 2022 salary.
The Governor, Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff, Assistant Chief of Staff, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants, Personal Assistants, Drivers, and Others are among the Former Public Officers Affected, according to the Party.
The Ademola Adeleke administration spent N941,850,000 on rice for PDP members and leaders in the state, according to information provided by the Osun APC Chairman.
The local government’s SURE-P fund, which is intended to create social infrastructure throughout the state’s council areas, is where the money for the rice, according to the Osun APC, came from.
The Osun APC disclosed that Adeleke had both failed to pay the November salary of all of Oyetola’s legally designated political appointees, despite the latter having earmarked the fund for same before he quit the party, in a statement by the party’s director, Kola Bisi.
Lawal further revealed that the gathering had happened upon a letter in which Adeleke, acting through the State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, instructed the diverting of funds intended for the state’s general populace in order to buy the item.
In the document that was obtained on Wednesday, it is said that “it was seen that Governor Adeleke purposely and reluctantly refused to pay the November salary of all the public officers who lawfully worked for Oyetola until the end of his tenure last month.
“Governor Adeleke could not be owed the salary of the public employees who were duly hired by his predecessor for whatever reason under the sun,” the statement reads.
There is no justification for Adeleke withholding the wages of the workers other than wickedness, insensitivity, a lack of empathy, and remorse. He should remove his toga of politics of hatred, revenge, tyranny, and victimization.
He questioned the justification for the confiscation of the public employees’ pay given that documents showed they were lawfully employed and conscientiously worked until November 27, 2022, when a change in administration occurred.
I don’t know how we got to this point, he said. Why is Governor Adeleke penalizing a variety of Osun State employees whose salary he is now holding in reserve?
“Thank God, we live in a democracy where all branches of any government are required by law to have checks and balances.
Since Governor Adeleke is causing some state residents to have a miserable Christmas by failing to pay their salaries, it is necessary for the Osun State House of Assembly to look into the situation.
Lawal came to the conclusion that “it is obvious that the people of Osun State have boarded a metaphorical one-chance vehicle with Governor Adeleke in the driver’s seat of governance in the state” after questioning on whose authority the state governor approved the withdrawal of the funds from the local government allowance without any recourse to the state House of Assembly.
The Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in response, claimed that despite clear clarifications that the funding for the purchase did not come from the SURE-P fund, which is still intact, the Osun APC is obsessed with false information simply because Governor Adeleke stopped the previous administration from looting the fund.
According to Akindele, the public has continued to praise the governor for the way he has handled the issue of distributing rice.
He praised Governor Adeleke for breaking new ground and putting Osun on the right track for sustained growth and excellent administration.
The issue arose when the governor of Osun State approved a committee for rice distribution in a news release on Wednesday.
The state governor also claimed that the SURE-P fund is still present in the local governments’ accounts in a statement sent through his spokeswoman, Olawale Rasheed.
