The 18 immediate past council chairmen in Ondo State have debunked the allegation by the state’s chapter of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that they were still drawing salaries after leaving office.
They faulted the allegation credited to the party’s state spokesman, Mr Kennedy Ikantu Peretei as s figment of his imagination.
Peretei had in a statement on Thursday alleged that due to the absence of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in the state, the ex-chairmen were still drawing salaries from the state’s treasury.
But in a statement by a former ALGON chairman in the state, Mr. Augustine Oloruntogbe the ex-chairmen said “The author of the structurally defective information failed woefully to provide a shred of evidence to support his baseless allegations as he has no proof of who approved the payment and how much had been collected.”
According to the statement: “We could have ignored his jaundiced report but we have a duty to lay the facts before the public so that the good people of Ondo state are not misled by a group of unfortunate politicians who are still leaking their political wounds from home and abroad.
“This deliberate falsehood by Peretei and his cohorts can only be described as a merchant selling the sun to buy candles or some set of mischief makers sprigging up mere political gimmicks to seek cheap poblicity.
“We therefore want to call on Mr Peretei Ikantu to withdraw the libelous publication with public apology within 24 hours, failure which we will recourse to legal remedy”.
The ex-chairmen said: “We wish to inform members of the public to see the report as not only malicious and labelious and parts of futile attempts by the drowning PDP to soil the image of the past local government chairmen and by extension. the present administration in the state.”
They added: “As you will all recall, all the former LG chairmen legitimately handed over the affairs of the 18 local government areas to their various HEADS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION who have been holding forth since 30th of August 2023 in accordance with the extant rules.
“And we want to use this opportunity to thank Mr Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN, CON for putting up democratic structure in all the council areas which allows us to serve our people at the grassroots level.”
