BREAKING: Osun workers expose governor Adeleke over N10billion budget for food, entertainment

Workers under the aegis of Osun Workers Union ( OWU ) have once again berated the Osun state government for misleading the citizens of the state over the N10billion inserted in the 2023 Supplementary Budget for the Office of Governor Ademola Adeleke.…CONTINUE READING

The Union, in another press statement aimed at setting the record straight, lambasted “the morally challenged mascot for disinformation in the state, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, for having had to jettison the little left of his rotten integrity to defend the obvious wickedness and hollowness of his Principal, Governor Adeleke.”

In what the union described as a puerile press statement concocted to trivialize their weighty allegation that Governor Adeleke allocated for his enjoyment the sum of N10billion at a time he was reluctant to increase the salary of the economically pressured civil servants, Alimi was said to have lied dishonourably that “it is only in the realm of empty… imagination of… blackmailers that Governor Adeleke allocated N10bn to his office. We are quick to say that no such thing exist in reality.”

“This statement from the Osun state government,” the union submitted, “is an irresponsible lie.”

The statement read partly, “We insist that Governor Adeleke, without notice to members of the public as expected by the fine legislative tradition, arm-twisted his lapdog in the state assembly, Speaker Wale Egbedun, to insert strictly for the Office of the Governor a sum of N10billion in the 2023 Supplementary Budget.

“Whereas in the approved budget for 2023 signed by ex-Governor Oyetola, N6.6billion was to go for the office of the Governor with N1.17billion of it to handle salary of civil servants; in the revised version done by Adeleke, the Office of the Governor is now to gulp N16.6billion ( sixteen billion, six hundred million naira).What does the Governor need N16billion for in his office?”

The union added that, “While extra N6,532,000,000.00 ( N6.5billion) has been allocated for the food, expensive entertainment and luxury lifestyles of Governor Adeleke and the charlatans around him in the supplementary budget, nothing was voted for civil servants working in his office.”

Osun Workers Union also said that of the N1.17b earmarked for personnel cost in the original budget, only N551m, representing 46.9%, had been paid to workers as at September 2023 by the Adeleke administation.

The union said this is a clear evidence of lip-service being paid by Governor Adeleke to the welfare of civil servants in his office.

The statement also read that, “while Governor Adeleke has reduced the subvention due to the Osun State University, for example by 60%, struggled to pay just N1.9billion of the total N5.4billion budgeted for the institution, he has allocated a humongous N3, 625, 207, 516 (N3.6b) for renovation of his office and other inessential properties created for his personal comfort in the name of capital projects.”

On the state government’s claim that the N9billion FG palliative fund is safe, the union challenged the Osun State government to disclose details of the commercial banks where the said N9billion is domiciled if truly the fund is still available.

According to them, “The truth is that the said monies have been diverted to serve other personal and mundane purposes.

“Governor Adeleke must be truthful to his conscience and do everything within his power to produce the N9billion for the immediate use of the people. Planning to waste palliatiave fund to construct 5 flyovers and other white-elephant projects that would not be ready for people’s use until a later time in future is a ploy to hide the seeming mismanagement of the fund.

“What Osun workers and citizens need now is money to buy food and take care of their basic needs. Governor Adeleke should provide this for them NOW as other state governors are doing for their workers and citizens.

“It is not citizens’ fault that despite earning over N130billion in federal allocation, grants and IGR since November 2022, Governor Adeleke is still crying of lack of money to fund pro-people’s budget. God has been fair to the current government. It is Governor Adeleke that should cure his profligacy and mindless penchant for unproductive owanbe,” the union advised.