Osun state civil servants have on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 embarked on a protest for the government’s refusal to pay their outstanding salaries for about five months.
The aggrieved workers chanted anti-government songs along the road under the leadership of the state chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Mr. Olatunji Akinyemi.
Additionally, the civil servants acclaimed that the present administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola has failed to remit pension contributions previously deducted from their salaries.
They lamented that the governor preferred to lavish the state’s funds on campaigns of the All Progressives Congress, APC to the detriment of the workers.
According to Vanguard, Akinyemi said workers who were due for promotion since 2013, had been denied their rights, adding that the government had not shown that the workers meant anything to his administration.
In defence, the governor claimed that the non-payment of his worker’s salaries is not unconnected with the revenue crisis that recently rocked the country.
Aregbesola issued a statement through his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon.
He said, “We wish to repeat for the upteempth time that the unfortunate owing of salaries running to about three months cannot be divorced from the crushing revenue crisis that has hit Nigeria as a whole.
“What is required at this stage is for all and sundry to properly understand the genesis of this whole saga which will be helpful rather than being viewed as a deliberate act on the part of the government.’’
