The campaign council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Osun State has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of withholding essential documents necessary for the payment of local government workers’ salaries.
The claim was made in a statement issued in Osogbo on Thursday by Kola Olabisi, Co-Chairman (Print), AMBO Governorship Election Council’s Media Committee.
The council, which supports APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji, claimed that the governor’s actions have interrupted the normal operation of local government issues throughout the state.
It accused the governor of “personalising the local government administration,” claiming that the situation has caused hardship and confusion for locals, particularly those who rely on local government pay.
The statement states, “It is astonishing that a governor could deliberately withdraw all the documents from the local government council areas that could enable the Court of Appeal-reinstated local government council chairmen and councillors to effectively fulfil the payment of salaries and allowances.”
The council also stated that the development has impacted not only council employees but also auxiliary staff, whose livelihoods rely on prompt wage payments.
“It is worthwhile to pointedly tell Governor Adeleke that he could only run, but it would be pretty impossible for him to perpetually hide under the constitutional provision of the immunity clause,” the statement stated.
The APC campaign council also questioned the rationale for the alleged document withholding, calling the conduct reprehensible and suggested it could result in serious constitutional implications.
In response, the Osun State branch of the Accord denounced the claims as baseless and politically motivated.
Victor Akande, the party’s state chairman, dismissed the allegations as “a poorly scripted hogwash aimed at diverting public attention from monumental financial atrocities already perpetrated in the state local government system by APC political actors.”
Akande accused APC members of seeking to blackmail the Adeleke administration with “emotional propaganda and empty noise.”
He emphasised that the people of the state deserved transparency, accountability, and growth, and that any attempt to stymie progress in the state would be vigorously opposed.