As controversy still rages on between the Organized Labour and Osun State government,a group under the aegis of Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO) has cautioned the State governor,Mr Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to stop using the fourteen years old death of late Cicero of Esa-Oke,Chief Bola Ige to draw public sympathy over his government inability to pay the backlogs of salaries to the State workers and retirees alike for period of seven(7) to eight(8) months.
The group,while reacting to the media report on Friday which credited to Governor Aregbesola that, ‘Ige’s killers were behind the plot to destabilize Osun State’,through a statement issued and signed by its Chairman,Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman and a copy was made available to newsmen in Osogbo yesterday,lambasted Mr Aregbesola for drawing the spirit of Late Ige into his failure to perform the simple
constitutional role of a governor by paying the workers and retirees alike as at when due,insisting that spirit of good governance which the late Attorney General represented while alive, would continue hunt Aregbesola till the end of his deceitful tenure for subjecting the workers and retirees with their families to untold hardship.
Comrade Sulaiman however reiterated its group call on the President Muhammadu Buhari led-Federal Government to immediately take over the payment salaries of workers and retirees alike of the tate,alleging
that Mr Aregbesola refused to pay the backlogs of workers as at the time of making this statement,after the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has released the sum of N34billion bailout to the State government for the settlement of outstanding salaries.
The CSCEO also declared their unalloyed support to the position of the State workforce through its Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) that non-payment of salaries to workers were act of corruption of the state governors,especially Governor Aregbesola,saying that Mr Aregbesola should stop dragging the god name of Ige into his deceitful government,instead of doing the needful thing by giving dividends of democracy as being promised during th electioneering campaign to the people of the State.
According to the group:”It is a very unfortunate on the part of Osun State governor,Mr Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for dragging the good name of Chief Bola Ige into his poor performance in office by criminally
and recklessly mismanage the resources accrued to the State from Federation Account and as well subject the State into bankruptcy.Aregbesola is a serial and pathological liar that is ruling the State since November 2010 till date with deceit,where all sectors of the State are nothing to write home about.Mr. Governor has raised the morale of the workers and retirees in many fora that whenever the Federal Government through Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) released their promised bailout fund to the State,the government of the State will not waste time to pay the outstanding salaries of workers and retirees alike.But to our dismay today,payment of outstanding salaries from bailout fund still turn crisis between workers and State government,what a shame and deceitful government?.
“This is high time for President Muhamadu Buhari led-Federal Government to ascend to our clarion call to take over the payment of workers salaries and pension due to retirees.Mr Arebesola has shown that he does not have mental and physical capability to govern the State again because he cannot perform the simple duty of a State governor by payment of salaries.We are using this medium to reiterate our call that Federal Government should come and help Aregbesola on the payment of salaries to the State workforce and retirees. Those who are making jest of us when we were pronouncing that Aregbesola hates workers and retirees with passion and also insensitive to their plight,will now see reasons in our earlier call.We believed that the spirit of Bola Ige’s good governance will continue to hunt Mr Rauf Aregbesola till the end of his deceitful government in the State”.
Sulaiman therefore enjoined the organized labour including Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),Nigeria Union of Teachers(NUT),Nigeria Union of Pensioners(NUP) and host of others in the State,not to allow Aregbesola led-government to shortchange and coerce their members again over backlogs of salaries and pension dues for period of seven(7) to eight (8) months now.
