Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has claimed that his administration inherited more than 80 percent infrastructural deficit from the immediate-past administration of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
Adeleke disclosed this at a programme organised by the Osun Development Association in Lagos recently.
The Governor who was represented by the Group Managing Director, Odua Investment Company Limited, Chief Lai Orilowo, said that he worked assiduously to solve the infrastructure problem, which is yielding positive results.
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He noted that almost all the projects not completed by his predecessor had been completed.
Adeleke said he had also ended the regime of “half salary” for workers, noting that workers and pensioners are being paid as and when due.
He said: “We are paying back the diverted contributory pensions of our senior citizens. Our pensioners are registered for health insurance scheme with the state paying the bills.
“We have reformed the public service and have ensured regular payment of salaries and promotion arrears.
“In Osun, there is a nexus between the formal and informal workforce. So, taking care of public servants boosts, enlivens and strengthens the informal workforce in the state.”
Adeleke added that the completion of all inherited projects was in line with the commitment of his administration to ensure accelerated development of the state.
“We live it and act it. I retained all contractors inherited from my predecessor; none of those contracts was terminated. No contractor was fired. My only insistence was that they must deliver on what they signed with the state.
“I am also completing most of the abandoned projects inherited from my predecessor. The Ikirun-Osogbo dualisation is completed and I am going to complete the road up to the border with Kwara.
“The Osogbo Ring Road is being completed, while the Osogbo-Iwo road is ongoing”, he stated.
Responding to the Governor’s claim, Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), accused Adeleke of running his administration with falsehood.
Chairman of the APC in the State, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, asked Adeleke to state things as they are without necessarily resorting to fabrication of lies.
Lawal reminded Adeleke that his immediate predecessor, Oyetola, never reneged in paying the full salaries of the government workers throughout his tenure of four years.
The state APC chairman challenged Adeleke to be a man and truthful enough to disclose that it was Oyetola’s predecessor who incurred the half salary re
gime which affected only 25 per cent of the state government workforce.
He explained that workers on levels one to six constituting 75 per cent of the workforce were collecting full salaries, while those on levels seven upward were the ones affected by the modulated salary during the Aregbesola’s administration.
Lawal said: “One would have thought that Governor Adeleke would have disclosed to his Osun Development Association’s event audience that his administration had collected more than N300 billion Federal Government’s allocations since the inception of his 18 months’ government which is far more than what ex-Governor Oyetola collected in his four-year tenure.
“We consider the disclosure of Governor Adeleke at the Osun Development Association’s event that his administration has been paying promotion arrears as another fallacious statement spewed to score an unmerited political point as this is far from what is obtainable.”
Yusuf Oketola is a trained journalist with over five years of experience in the media industry. He has worked for both print and online medium. He is a thorough-bred professional with an eye of hindsight on issues bothering on social justice, purposeful leadership, and a society where the leaders charge and work for the prosperity of the people.
