Osun state government says the administration of Adegboyega Oyetola incurred a N76 billion debt in salaries, pensions, and insurance commitments.
The disclosure was made by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Bimpe Ogunlumade, while briefing officials of the new administration on the financial status of the state on Thursday.
Mrs Ogunlumade gave the breakdown of the salaries and pension-related liabilities as follows:
(I) Salary: N29,875,191,128.64
(II) Pension Arrears: N45,375,237,693.40
(III) Group Life Assurance Scheme: N554,644,028.97
Total: N75,805,072,851.01
However, the media side to Oyetola, Mr Ismail Omipidan has debunked the allegation noting that it is a blackmail of his administration.
Omipidan insisted that Oyetola’s administration did not owe a dime in payment of salaries adding that he reduced the backlog of pensions and gratuities inherited.
“For the umpteempth time, let me place it on record that for four years, we did not owe a dime in payment of salaries, while we made conscious efforts to reduce the backlog of pensions and gratuities we inherited. This also explains why for four years we did not witness any industrial dispute. By their figure, what it means is that we owed salaries for close to one year. Is that possible? The Labour Union can also bear testimony to the fact that we never left any salary unpaid in our time, just as we did not take any bank loan for four years.
“The new Governor and his team want to ride on a populism mantra. Unfortunately, They do not understand the concept and philosophy of populism. That’s why they have resorted to blackmail.
“On the day of inauguration, the Governor said it would take time for him to pay salaries because he needed to freeze government account to enable him to look at the books. Today, he is saying he frowns at delay in payment of salary. And for November salary, we actually signed off since November 20th. I am sure we are in for more drama,” he said.
