Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress and the ex-Commissioner for Finance, Wale Bolorunduro, on Monday traded allegations over the identity of the person who suggested the idea of modulated salary paid to civil servants in the state during the administration of ex-governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
Between June 2015 and December 2017, workers in the state received modulated salaries.
During the period, workers on grade level 14 and above received half of the amount due to them as salary, while those on levels 8 to 13 were paid 75%.
But the APC, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, said workers in the state were subjected to the experience of modulated salary through the idea given to the then-governor by Bolorunduro.
Earlier, the spokesperson for the state governor, Olawale Rasheed, had ascribed the idea of half salary to Oyebamiji, but Olabisi, who said the APC governorship candidate should not be linked to the half salary imbroglio, insisted that Bolorunduro, an ally of governor Ademola Adeleke, was the initiator of the idea.
“It is a pity that the embattled state governor and his cohorts are so forgetful so soon to the extent that they find it difficult to remember that it was Wale Bolorunduro who is the Adeleke’s advisory consultant on economy and former Finance Commissioner under the administration of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, is widely known as the undeniable architect of half salary regime in the state.
“It is a statement of fact that the Adeleke government is the worst in the history of the state based on its numerous verifiable monumental failures across all the sectors and no amount of defamation of character can save him from losing the forthcoming governorship election in the state,” Olabisi said.
Highlighting some achievements recorded by Oyebamiji in previous offices held, Olabisi said “It is still fresh in the memory of the discerning people of Osun State that Oyebamiji was a Messiah who rescued Osun State from the scourge of half salary regime and returned the state to the path of full salary payment, vibrant socio-economic reforms and improved transformation of all the sectors of the government when he became the Finance Commissioner in 2017.
“It would be recalled that Oyebamiji was the Managing Director, Osun State Investment Company Limited, OSICOL throughout the period that the half salary structure lasted and only came in on appointment as the Finance Commissioner to stabilize the state’s economy at the tail end of the Aregbesola government which he successfully carried out by stimulating the finances of the state and returning Osun to the path of full salary payments.”
But while responding, Bolorunduro dismissed APC’s allegations, saying he was not in office when half salary was introduced, and fingered some people in the administration of ex-governor Aregbesola as the initiator of the idea.
“There is a need to set the record straight to avoid misleading the Osun public. I left the Government on November 26th 2014, when Aregbesola dissolved the first term cabinet and Aregbesola, within fourteen (14) days, formed his second term cabinet comprising his principal officers,” he said.
He continued, “When the Labour Committee headed by one of the principal officers of Aregbesola was formed in July 2015, my name was conspicuously missing from the list of Government Committee Members because I had already left government since November 2014. I was reliably told that I was not to be involved because I wouldn’t allow them to cut salaries and wages. I want the media to check the Labour Government Committee List to know the members.
“When that Labour/ Government Committee recommended the so-called modulated salary, I want the media to check who signed the communique on behalf of the Government.
“There were some elements in that Government, who were with Governor Rauf Aregbesola before his government was formed in 2010, who were with him, before we joined his cabinet in 2011 and who remained with him, after I left his cabinet. They should be the ones to explain the rationale behind the policy of paying half salaries to a certain cadre of staff, after I have left office in November 2015.”
Bolorunduro had served as the State Commissioner for Finance between 2011 and 2014 during the first tenure of ex-governor Aregbesola.
He was succeeded by Bola Oyebamiji, who was nominated by Aregbesola as a Commissioner in April, 2017.
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