Ajimobi explains non-payment of Akala’s salary

Posted by admin Governors, Headlines, Oyo, State News Sunday, July 10th, 2011

The May and June salaries of all political office holders in Oyo State, including former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, his aides, current governor of the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and his aides, are yet to be paid because, after payment of the May minimum wage of N18, 000, in conformity with agitation by workers in the state, there was nothing left to pay political office holders.

This was the submission of the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ajimobi on Public Communication, Dr. Festus Adedayo, while reacting to a statement signed by the spokesman to the former governor of the state.

According to Adedayo, former Governor Alao-Akala even has no moral right to berate his successor for non-payment of his last salary in office when, in contravention of an injunction taken against him in a law court, he flagrantly paid himself and his aides a stupendous 300 per cent of his annual salary, which equals three-year salary, as severance package, leaving the treasury dry thereafter.

The statement said that the alleged financial rascality and massive looting of the state by the Alao-Akala government had literally brought the state on its canvass.

The statement also claimed that the former governor disregarded a court judgment obtained by some retired judges in the state stopping him from paying either himself or his political office holders their severance allowance, emptying the treasury to pay the package which, in law, was supposed to be paid by the incoming government.

According to Ajimobi’s aide, payment of the May salary in the state came in the heat of labour agitations for increment of salaries and due to the paucity of funds and the governor’s decision to prioritise payment of the increment as agitated by workers, there was no money left to pay political office appointees.

“After paying civil servants the N18, 000 minimum wage, the state government could not pay political office appointees their salaries, including Governor Ajimobi himself and his aides who, since their appointments, have not earned a dime in salary. The Alao-Akala mouthpiece can always confirm the veracity or otherwise of this assertion from the treasury,” the statement said.

The governor’s aide attributed the former governor’s wolf cry to either mischief, ignorance or combination of both since this information was public knowledge in the state.
Going further on this, Governor Ajimobi’s aide said that this also affected some local governments in the state which, after paying the mandatory N18, 000 minimum wage in the May salary, there was little or no fund left for them to pay political appointees their salaries.

He said further that even when the salary issue is sorted out and government was ready to pay both the former government’s appointees and the current ones, the government would still have to ascertain the true figure of Alao-Akala’s political appointees.

According to him, the figure bequeathed to the current government on the former governor’s Special Assistants, “for instance”, was so unwieldy and unreliable that it keeps oscillating from 24 to 73, stating that “I doubt if the current government would be ready to funnel non-existent funds into such drain.”

According to eye witnesses, the gunmen had come in three vehicles while the staff were concluding the business of the day.

“The gunmen threw several explosives into the Alkaleri Police station that is close to the bank,” a bank official saidwp_posts