The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola of paying N20 billion to a road contractor, Slava Yediteppe, from the N34.988 billion bailout received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The Director of Media and Strategy of the PDP in Osun State, Diran Odeyemi, who revealed this allegation in a statement made available to journalists in Osogbo on Sunday, said it was wrong for Aregbesola to pay the contractor from the fund that was meant to pay backlog of workers’ salaries and pensions.

PDP said Aregbesola has clearly proven that he doesn’t care about the suffering of the workers who have not been paid for nine months.

The PDP claimed that the N35 billion was fixed in two banks and one of the transactions was recalled and the fund was used to effect the payment made to the contractor last Thursday, while the other transaction was still intact.

“We have it on good authority that the payment was effected last week Thursday and we have noticed that the contractor has returned to site with its men and equipment within 24 hours as requested by the governor.

“Much as we believe the road project is ideal, we wonder why an inflated road contract awarded at N1 billion per kilometre has suddenly become the priority of Governor Aregbesola at this particular period of nine months unpaid salary if not because of some under current deals to siphon funds and shortchange the people of Osun state.

“This perhaps is the reason why the governor said he would only pay half of March salary for workers at a meeting he held with them last week.”.

 

“Having spent over N500 million for biometric screening of the state workforce in 2013 which led to a monthly payment of N50 million to a Lagos based consultant to undertake direct payment of workers salaries since then, we wonder why another screening is being done in 2015 by another Lagos-based consultant. All these are the reasons why Osun State is in debt and could not perform.”

Janeth J