The Majority Leader of the House of Assembly in Osun is sweeping the floor of the Assembly by himself – here’s why.
The Majority Leader of the House of Assembly in Osun, Timothy Owoeye, has to do cleaner’s job because of Aregbesola’s mismanagement?
The situation with the non-payments in Osun state has deteriorated to an extreme level. The projects are abandoned and hospital closed. The Majority Leader of the House of Assembly in Osun has to sweep the floor of the Assembly by himself because workers are on strike.
This desperate situation has been described recently in an interview to the press given by Lanre Ogunlefe, who is a senior advocate of Nigeria. Describing the situation, he told that “a very young boy of about seven was brought to the hospital and his arm was about to be amputated because he could not get anti-tetanus injection.”
The senior advocate added that the similar situation is observed in nearly all the states of Nigeria: even oil-rich states such as Bayelsa and Delta are unable to pay civil servants’ salaries. Considering this the state governors’ excesses look particularly ugly. And the only way to curb these excesses it to strip them of their immunity.
Ogunlefe was speaking to the press on behalf of Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, who earlier filed a petition against Osun governor Governor Rauf Aregbesola, which, however was dismissed by the Osun legislature.
Folahanmi Oloyede was subjected to severe criticism for this petition from the side of the state government and the APC lawmakers.
However, Ogunlefe, who is Oloyede’s lawyer, told the press that the financial irregularities by Aregbesola set forth in the petition, are so evident that it is hard to understand how lawmakers cannot see them.
“The House of Assembly [in Osun] consists of APC and PDP members. Only APC members constituted the ad hoc committee which investigated the matter. And in a House that has both the APC and the PDP, you would expect that some PDP members would be part of the committee,” told Ogunlefe, adding that, “they did not even want to grant us a hearing. They said the governor had responded and I said can we have a copy of the response but they refused give it to us.”
Responding to these allegations, the Chief Whip of the House of the Assembly in Osun, Oladoyin Bamisayemi, who was also a member of the seven-man committee that investigated the allegations against Aregbesola, told the press that “most of the governors cannot pay salaries I agree. But why are their own judges over there not raising dust? It is unfortunate.”
He also added that he feels the same dissatisfaction as unpaid workers do because he didn’t get any money since he was inaugurated on July 2 – and even more.
“It will interest you to know that we are being owed seven months’ salaries of the previous Assembly,” told Bamisayemi, “I am a second term lawmaker and I am owed seven months of the last dispensation. So, we also have problems. We all try to eke out a living here and there, relying on our wives.”
After Moves to impeach him, Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has finally began the part payment of salary arrears he owes his workers.
Osun workers are being owed salaries since Febraury, and with the new development the local government workers have started to collect their March and April 2015 salaries.
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