Osun APC accuses Adeleke’s administration of trying to circumvent Supreme Court judgments on LG autonomy
..Says its criminal to demand post-written Resignation Letters From LG Chairmanship Candidates
By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Osun State has accused the Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration of trying to circumvent the judgments of the Supreme Court that granted a full autonomy to all the local government council areas in Nigeria,
The APC said that all the local government chairmanship candidates under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in State have been received a directive from office the Chief of Staff to sign a prepared undated resignation letter to show their loyalty to the state government.
This was contained in a statement on Friday signed by the Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, said that a stakeholders’ meeting has been called today to be presided over by the Chief of Staff and the state party chairman where the PDP local government council chairmanship candidates would be coerced to append their signatures to the post- written resignation letters.
According to the statement, “If the news making the rounds across Osun State is anything to go by, that the state government is trying all possible means to circumvent the recent judgement of the Supreme Court that granted a full autonomy to all the local government council areas in Nigeria, then, the state government needs to urgently come out clean with regards to the grievous allegation.
“It was reliably gathered that all the local government chairmanship candidates under the auspices of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State are now in a quandary to a strange directive from the state Office of the Chief of Staff to come forward and sign a prepared undated resignation letter each which can be used to ease them out of office at will if they act contrary to being perpetually subservient to the state government with reference to the councils’ monthly allocations from the Federal purse on assumption of office.
“Information has it that the PDP local government council chairmanship candidates in the state were cajoled by the office of the Chief of Staff and the state PDP chairman in this opprobrious assignment that the state government would require the support of the council chairmanship candidates by having unfettered access to their monthly allocations in order to get going its various stagnated white elephant multi-billion naira infra-projects in some towns in the state.
“It was also learnt that the state government has informed the PDP local government council chairmanship candidates that it is the signing of the resignation letters in advance by them that would be predicated on how the state government support would be extended to them in order to win the elections and will also be used to determine the level of their loyalty to the party and the ruling government.
“Dependable sources disclosed that the PDP candidates saw no reason why the state government would make them to be on a collision path with the judgement of the apex court of the land with reference to the granting of financial autonomy to them by the federal government-led administration of President Tinubu.
The APC, however criticized the government’s handling of the state’s economy, citing the construction of multi-billion naira flyovers without a clear source of funding.
The Party expressed concern over the administration’s failure to announce a minimum wage for workers, despite other states announcing wages between N70,000 and N85,000.
“It should be a source of concern for the discerning members of the society how the current administration led by Governor Ademola Adeleke is still dilly-dallying on a pronouncement on the minimum wage for its workers after which several states have announced between N70,000.00K and N85,000.00K as their own minimum wages.
“There is indeed a fire on the mountain for the reigning government in the state as there cannot be a deserving peace for a person who metaphorically swallowed a pestle.
“It is criminal for a set of unpatriotic political gangsters to be demanding for undated post-written resignation letters from either elected or appointed political functionaries with a view to whipping them into the control of the state government in order to loot the state treasury through the local governments.
“We make it abundantly clear that the repugnant and bizarre invention of the writing of undated resignation letters in advance by the PDP chairmanship candidates is an iron cast indication that the Adeleke-led administration is desperate to rig the forthcoming local government council elections which we shall resist by the instrumentality of the law of the land.”
