Don’t Bail Aregbesola out, CSO Tells Buhari      

An Osun State-based Civil Society Organisation (CSO) under the auspices of Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) has urged President Muhamadu Buhari not to bailout the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, on the payment of backlogs of salaries, unless Aregbesola come clean on the judicious use of the N35billion bailout funds earlier given to the state for the payment of backlogs of salaries and pension due to workers and retirees respectively.

Advising the federal government under the watch of President Buhari to stop worrying over the inability of Aregbesola to pay the backlogs of salary and pension arrears in the state, CSCEOS insisted that Aregbesola diverted the large sum of bailout funds to his government’s abandoned roads project where he would collect kick-back from the contractors.

They however declared that huge loans had already been collected on some of these projects which were yet to see the light of the day, adding “but now, turning the same projects to the conduit pipe where the meagre resources of the state had been siphoned to the private pursue of Aregbesola, his son, Kabiru and their co-travelers is unfortunate”

It advised Buhari to take over the payment of salaries and pension due to workers and retirees in the state, alleging that if any fund is released to Aregbesola for the payment of backlog of six(6) to seven (7) month salaries and pension due to workers and retirees in the state, Aregbesola would divert it like he did the  bailout funds.

Meanwhile, the group condemned the Jacobs Adekomi-led Osun State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for  colluding with  Aregbesola to mortgage the workers’ welfare for personal and selfish aggrandisement. 

The group urged the workers in the state to use this period to request from Aregbesola what happened to their salaries deductions to Pension Contributory Scheme, bank loans and Cooperative Societies fund, advising the foremost Labour Leader, Hassan Sunmonu, to resign voluntarily as Chairman from the stage-managed Osun States’ Revenue Allocation Committee before Aregbesola drags his hard earned name into the mud for selfish interest.