By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Osun State chapter has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration of squandering the resources of the state to fund unmerited adoption of his second term tenure by the State workers
The party alledged that the state government has made available the sum of N172 million for the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees NULGE and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to adopt Governor Adeleke for the second term during the May Day anniversary.
The APC, in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, stated that the sharing formula of N97 million for the factionalized NULGE while both the NLC and the TUC are to get a sum of N75 million meaning that the Governor as an inducement for the labour unions to adopt him for second term on the May Day.
According to him, “Information has it that the purpose of the cash inducement by the state government for the labour unions is to encourage the leaders of the unions to adopt the candidature of Governor Adeleke for second term during the May Day celebration.
“In order to make the forceful second term adoption exercise rosy, the state government has bought Ankara uniforms for all the government workers in the state with a directive to them to flood the venue of the event on the May Day in order to give a false popularity and acceptability to the embattled Governor Adeleke whose popularity is waning on daily basis for acts of mis-governance.
“It was apparent that the N172 million inducement given to the labour leaderships in the state by the state government under the guise of the celebration of this year’s May Day was meant to bribe them in order to perpetuate their unholy support to the government by continuously keeping the NULGE members at home who have been staying away from work for about three months running.
“With this development, it is crystal clear that the pliable and compromised labour leaders have been holding the entire workforce at the local government level across the state at the jugular, forcing them to stay away from work in order to frustrate the resumption of the Court of Appeal reinstated local government chairmen and councillors by the way of the 10th of February, 2025 landmark judgement.
“For how long would the compromised leaderships of the labour unions in the state be in the saddle for their personal and political interest while some of the NULGE members are becoming pauperized, hungry and dying at homes while the masses are needlessly suffering from having no access to health care at the grassroots among other deprivations to them as a result of the politics of the leadership of the union?
“There is no need for further worry as to the fact that it is the Governor Adeleke-led government that is the exponent of the continuous shunning of work by the local government council workers which in a way is willful undermining the rule of law as the reinstated local government council chairmen and councillors are not administering the councils through their whims and caprices but through the instrumentality of the force of the law of the land.
“It is absurd and ridiculous that the absence of governance at the grassroots level of government in Osun State has been suffering untold hardships for about three weeks running without the governor caring a hoot about the bizarre development which is first of its kind in any state in this country.” It added.