The Osun State Government on Tuesday said it has commenced payment of full salary and arrears in line with available resources.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, in a statement, said the development was in line with the governmentโs agenda and fulfillment of its promise to prioritize workers welfare.
The Oyebamiji said the decision was taken at the meeting of the Fund Apportionment Committee led by Comrade Hassan Sumonu with labour leaders and government representatives in attendance.
The commissioner explained that Governor Rauf Aregbesola directed payment of four months salary arrears and 2016 leave bonus to workers.
He added that the governor has equally directed regular payment of salaries henceforth.
โWith this, Government of the State of Osun has commenced gradual disbursement of Nineteen Billion, Eight Hundred and One Million, Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand, Two Hundred and Seventy-One Naira, Twenty-Two Kobo (19,801,328,271.22) as salaries and other entitlements to its workers.โ The statement read in part.
Oyebamiji commended labour unions and their allies for supporting the government and for believing in its capacity to honour its promises.
It pledged to always put workersโ welfare above other considerations as the government enters its final phase.
But the chairman of the stateโs chapter of the Peopleโs Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Soji Adagunodo, has urged civil servants in the state not to be deceived by the approval of money to offset part of the salary arrears being owed by the Aregbesola administration.
Adagunodo said the panicky measure by the governor only goes to confirm that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a party of deceit which takes joy in inflicting pains on the poor to make them them exploitable during election seasons.
Adagunodo, in a statement, said: โThe PDP wondered why the accumulated salary and allowances of workers which is being hurriedly paid was warehoused in dubious accounts without being paid for several monthsโฆ
โWe find it very distasteful that a government would be this inhuman to deny poor citizens of their legitimate earnings for close to three years and now turn around to pay part of the arrears in a manner suggesting it was doing them a favour.โ
While calling on Osun state workers and pensioners to remain resolute in their determination for a better deal with the PDP, Adagunodo said the party and its candidate, Sen. Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke, will not fail to redress all the alleged wrongs committed against workers in the last eight years.
