The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as needless and unwarranted the attacks and campaign of calumny against the state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, over a statement he made at a recent business/investment forum in the United States of America (USA).
Statements by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and some politicians had criticised the statement by the governor that the state has a workforce of 115,000 and pays a monthly wage of N11 billion.
The PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Engineer Akeem Olatunji, noted that those behind the attacks are uninformed, mischievous and devious.
It stated that the opposition APC and some political minions including one Mr. Hakeem Alao, who is claiming to be the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the last election, are confused and needed to be educated about running a state.
The statement indicated that Governor Makinde spoke at the Nigerian-American Business Forum in the USA as the father of the entire Oyo State and not just governor of the second tier of government, noting that merging the entire workforce and amount paid in wages by the state and local governments in Oyo State to convince investors was not out of order.
The party noted that the figure put out by Governor Makinde was a combination of state and local government workers and that the implementation of the minimum wage and incremental adjustment took the wage bill of workers in both tiers of government from N8 billion monthly to N11 billion.
It will be recalled that Governor Makinde had, at different fora, before the implementation of the minimum wage, noted that about N8 billion is pumped into the economy of the state monthly.
The PDP said it took exception to the campaign of calumny and unsubstantiated claim that the figure quoted by Governor Makinde was fake and an attempt to loot the resources of the state, warning the Oyo APC to desist from making reckless claims about Makinde, “who has proven through his policies and actions that integrity is non-negotiable and rekindled the hope of Nigerians that public accountability and transparency could be practised in governance.”
According to the PDP, the APC made the claim because it knew that with the on-going biometric verification of the workers in the state, the immediate past government overseen by its leader would soon be exposed on how the wage bill of the state increased by over N1 billion after the APC lost the 2019 governorship election.
It added that the erstwhile ruling party is afraid of its shadows and thinks everyone would be like its leaders, who made a mess of governance and stole the state blind when given the opportunity to govern it.
