‘I’ll pay workers’ salaries before June 30,’ Governor promises

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has promised to pay the salaries of workers being owed before June 30, 2015.

Aregbesola has been severely criticized for failing to pay the workers for seven months and has been accused of personal extravagance by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The governor made the promise on Sunday, June 14, 2015, via a statement released his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon.

It reads in part:

“Before the end of June, workers would be paid their salaries. The dream has not gone awry and it is a clear vision that Osun must be on its feet, self-reliant and be a reference point in Nigeria. The race to ensure development within the first term of Aregbesola was informed by the fear of what is happening now.”

“Aregbesola wanted an Osun State that is self-reliant. That Osun State, almost two decades after its creation, could not boast of tax-paying companies speak volume about the magnitude of the works that awaited the Aregbesola administration.”

“But he did not shy away from this task of industrialisation. Within his first term, his government had caused investors to bring up companies, such as the Omoluabi Garment Factory, Osogbo and Adulawo/RLG Technology Company in Ilesa.”

“Only a lazy administration would accept the tag of Osun State as a ‘civil servant’ state as excuse for not developing initiatives for industrialisation. To accept that our state must continue to survive on the meagre inflow through what goes to the civil servants alone is to accept that we would continue to depend on external forces for our survival.”

The Osun PDP had earlier urged Aregbesola to sell the state helicopter and cut down on personal expenses in order to raise funds to pay the workers.