The Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has refuted the allegation leveled by the Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that his government was planning to downsize the state workforce if elected for second term.
The Governor, in a statement by his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Yusuph Olaniyonu, the Government described the allegations as false, wicked, baseless and reckless.
“We have no reason to reduce the size of the work force because the workers remain an integral part of the successful pursuit of our Mission to Rebuild Ogun State. Indeed, our assessments have indicated need for additional personnel in key areas. They have contributed to the visible developments in our state.
“That is why despite the fact that the immediate past government defaulted on its salary wage bill which was about N4bn just before the advent of our administration, we have successfully coped with the increase in the total public sector wage bill to N6.2 billion a month and we have paid the workers up to date.
“Again, we have not only cleared the backlog of salaries and deductions inherited from the last PDP administration, we have also paid 42 months deductions without any hitch. We now have an arrangement with workers on how to pay the outstanding ones and that was one of the agreements we reached with the workers during our last interactive session with them,” the statement read.
It added that the present administration in Ogun State is worker friendly and that is why it has recruited over 20,000 workers into the various sections of the public service in the last three and half years.
The Government added that workers themselves know the difference between Governor Amosun and the PDP leadership which is represented by former Governor Gbenga Daniel who in a recent radio interview described Ogun State Workers as “naive, ignorant and gullible.
“We insist that from our experience and interaction with the workers, Ogun State civil servants in particular, and the people in general, are very sophisticated and hard working. They, in fact, have a rich tradition. The workers know who best represents their interests. They know the difference between now when public resources are devoted to public works, and the past, when government institutionalized corruption, oppression and insecurity,” the government noted.
