Governor-elect Senator Ademola Adeleke, has accused Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of setting booby traps for him to make the state ungovernable.
He leveled this allegation on Thursday while receiving a report of the Peoples Democratic Party’s transition committee in Ede, Osun State.
While commending the committee members for doing a good job, he assured the people of the state of purposeful leadership.
He said, “To the outgoing government, I condemn the deliberate efforts to destabilise the state and its governance assets. It is sad that someone who is entrusted with leadership, Governor Oyetola has chosen the path of booby-trapping state structures to make Osun ungovernable.
“From padding state payroll to multiple engagements outside the due process, the collective assets and treasury of Osun State are being distorted, diverted and mortgaged for selfish political and private interests.
“I make a vow to the people of Osun State that none of the ongoing illegalities will stand under my leadership. We are compiling the long list of infractions committed in the dying minutes of the APC government.”
But while reacting to Adeleke’s allegation, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Affairs, Mr Sunday Akere, urged the governor-elect to tell people of the state if he is incapable of serving as governor.
Akere said, “Governor Oyetola has the mandate of the people of Osun until midnight of November 26 and he will carry out the mandate as entrusted by the people in all ramifications.
“If the so-called governor-elect feels that he is not capable of shouldering the responsibility of administering Osun, he should openly tell the people. They are not there yet and they are not in the position to tell Governor Oyetola what he should do.”
Meanwhile, the PDP in the state has said that its incoming administration will sack Oyetola’s newly-employed as it declared null and void the mass employment of 12,000 workers of various cadres into the State Civil Service.
The employment was said to have been done after the July 16 governorship polls.
According to the party, the Adeleke’s administration will nullify all recent “illegal and ill-intentioned appointments” by the outgoing administration immediately after the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, assume the mantle of leadership on November 27.
The state Caretaker Chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle, in a statement on Friday, disclosed that all key appointments, such as the ones for Iree and Esa Oke Polytechnics as well as the recent “criminal appointment” of the new Project Coordinator for World Bank -sponsored Rural Access and Agricultural Mobility Agency project, would be promptly upturned.
This is because, according to him, they were done in contravention of enabling laws of the institutions and regulatory protocol governing the critical rural development project.
Speaking on employment, the PDP said, “We also want to put on records that the outgoing administration has employed over 12, 000 workers of various cadres since the July 16 elections.
“We have been warning members of the public not to engage in such bankrupting agenda. We had also issued several statements declaring such employment exercise a nullity.
“Any employment conducted in the last several weeks will not stand and will not enter the state payroll. We are in the know that the majority of those employed against due process are members of the APC purposely designed to weaken the financial base of the state.
“Our administration will not hesitate to sack all those illegally employed by Mr Oyetola in his last days in office”, the party affirmed.
“We also want to put on records that the outgoing administration has employed over 12,000 workers of various cadres since the July 16 elections.”
The party also noted that the Osun State was about to lose out on the $150m World Bank-supported Rural Access and Agricultural Mobility Agency due to the “illegal sacking” of the present project Coordinator whose appointment was advertised, noting that proper selection was supervised by the World Bank officials led by the National Coordinator in the year 2020.
He also issued a stern warning to accountants and financial institutions against consenting to last-minute fund movement.
The state PDP further noted that a lot of fund movement was moving out of the state treasury within the state government and called the attention of financial institutions to the need to avoid complicity and criminal partnership.
The Punch
