PDP Accuses Osun Governor Rauf Aregbesola Of Using Bailout To Pay Contractors

The PeopleDemocratic Party in Osun State has accused the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola of paying N20 billion to a construction company out of the N35billion bailout funds released to Osun by the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay workers salary arrears.

In a statement by PDP, signed by its Director of Media and Strategy, Prince Diran Odeyem, the party accused Aregbesola of using the bailout to pay the construction company Slava Yediteppe which is handling Oba
Adesoji Aderemi road project in the state.

PDP said Aregbesola ought to pay the salary arrears of the workers before paying the contractor. The party described Aregbesola's decision as as misplacement of priority, lamenting that civil servants in the state are wallowing in abject poverty due to unpaid salaries.
According to the statement, "We have it on good authority that the payment was effected last week Thursday and we have noticed that the contractor has returned to site with its men and equipment within 24
hours as requested by the governor."

The party said, "The N35billion bailout is lodged in two banks- WEMA and Zenith. While the funds in one of the banks remained fixed as earlier alleged, the part lodged in the other bank has been recalled to pay this company with very strong links to a presidency figure".

"Much as we believe the road project is ideal, we wonder why an inflated road contract awarded at N1 billion per kilometre has suddenly become the priority of Governor Aregbesola at this particular period of nine months unpaid salary if not because of some undercurrent deals to siphon funds and short-change the people of Osun
state".

"This perhaps is the reason why the governor said he would only pay half of March salary for workers at a meeting he held with them last week.
"These hardship is too much for the people of Osun and we are therefore appealing to traditional rulers and religious bodies in the state to wade in before it escalates further because an hungry person is unarguably an angry man," the PDP said.

Reacting to PDP allegation, the spokesperson for the All Progresive Congress in Osun State Barrister Kunle Oyatomi said "This is nonsense. Our dear colleagues‎, if you believe in this egregious nonsense of the PDP, you may go ahead and publish. But if you must be true to your profession, we urge you to investigate before you publish".

Oyatomi added "In the last 4 years or so Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been in power, the PDP has told so much lies that we are just tired of responding to their lies. The banks the PDP mentioned are there for the public to corroborate facts or fallacies of the PDP. We have had enough of this irresponsibility".