Aregbesola
The failure of Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to pay those working under the state government in the last five months has the potency of transforming into insecurity and other forms of crimes in the State. This was disclosed by a security expert, Mr. Lekan Jackson-Ojo.
Jackson-Ojo told Punch yesterday in Osogbo that it was criminal to leave workers’ salaries unpaid while the governor was funding campaigns of his party’s candidates ahead of the forthcoming elections.
Workers under the aegis of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, led by their chairman, Olatunji Akinyemi, had protested alleged non-payment of five months salaries earlier in the week.
Speaking further, Jackson-Ojo said workers might engage in corrupt practices while traders and artisans might be lured into crimes if they did not enjoy patronage from civil servants who had not been paid.
“Aregbesola should pay workers; it is their rights to be paid. He should not allow them to be protesting before paying them. It is unfair,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor had since appealed to the workers in the State to be calm, promising that their salaries would soon be paid.
The governor, who stated this in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, blamed the development on economic crisis in the country.
“While we recognise the right of the workers to seek payment of that which is legitimately theirs, we wish to repeat for the umpteen 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,” the statement noted.
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