Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday said the Osun workers wage bill has increased to N3.6 billion in Jan 2015 as against the N1.7 billion in December last year because many fictitious names of Lagos-based supporters of Governor Aregesola were added to genuine workers in the state and have since been receiving salaries.
In a press statement issued yesterday in Osogbo by Prince Diran Odeyemi, the party’s Director of Media and Strategy, said.”
The statement read in part: “Rather than debunk this accusation with rhetorics we challenge the state government to publish unedited the report of the recently concluded screening exercise it conducted.
“We have it on good authority that over N1billion was being paid to many Lagos based individuals who have no job in Osun but added to the list of genuine workers which eventually pushed the wage bill from N1.7 billion to N3.6 billion”
“Now that the wage bill has come down to N2.6 billion monthly, we want to caution governor Aregbesola against introducing schools fees, strange taxes and levies on the people of the state just as we urge him to make public its financial records of allocations, IGR and expenditures if truly his administration is for the people of Osun.
The party said the warning became necessary in view of the “cameo announcement of austerity measures that will come inform of property taxes, increased tenement rates and income tax, TV license all of which were contained in the recommendation of a Lagos.
