A group of civil servants im Osun State have denied claim that Former Governor of the State, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola bequeathed debts running into N75bn.
The civil servants, under the aegis of Concerned Osun State Civil Servants, in a statement obtained by InsightMedia on Saturday said the immediate past administration didn’t owe them a Kobo.
They added that Oyetola inherited close to N300bn when he took over in 2018 aside several unpaid half salaries.
The statement signed by Olaniyi Amolegbe reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a malicious statement circulated to the media by the spokesperson of Governor Ademola Adeleke, stating that his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola, left humongous debt for his government, including N75 billion he owed in salary and pension.
“The claim of the governor is not only untrue, it is equally distasteful and destructive.
“As a fact, we, as concerned civil servants with membership drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies across the state, know that a debt profile of close to N300 billion was bequeathed to the government of Oyetola in November 27, 2018. This was besides a monstrous half salary and pension arrears running to 30 months that the Oyetola-led Administration inherited.
“Notwithstanding the parlous financial situation of the state, Oyetola, through his proven creative financial engineering, was able to discharge his statutory obligations. He didn’t only pay salary and pension, he paid them ahead of many states in the country.
“We attest that Oyetola didn’t owe us a kobo throughout his four years in the saddle.
“In his four years in office, his administration committed no less than N180 billion to settle salary and pension obligations, this is despite the N97billion he coughed out to offset part of debt left behind by his predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. His relationship with us was so robust that civil servants in the state did not, for a day, embark on the ritual protests and strike actions. To his credit, he met many of our demands, including reabsorbing into the system, many of our colleagues sacked by the previous government and also implemented the N30,000 minimum wage.
“So we are deeply concerned that the new government of Senator Ademola Adeleke, who ordinarily should use this period to familiarize themselves with the peculiar system in Osun so as to appreciate the enormity of task ahead, have begun to play the crudest of politics with their cheap mudslinging and half-baked propaganda.
“We advise the new administration to get busy with statecraft. They are lucky that a distinguishedly responsible leader like Oyetola, who was thoughtful to save N14 billion in the coffers of the state for his successor, was their forerunner. Oyetola was not that lucky in 2018.”
