A pro-democracy group, the Campaign for Good Governance, has commended  Ogun State government for paying N13 billion  as gratuities to pensioners, arrears of cooperative deductions to civil servants and severance package to former political office holders and sustaining infrastructural development despite the economic downturn across the country.

The group, according to a press statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ganiyu Lasisi, observed: “Whereas the state government got N10.6 billion as refund from the Paris Club deductions and could choose to devote 25 per cent of the money to workers as recommended by the Federal Government, it instead devoted the entire sum to the welfare of its serving and retired workforce, making additional sum of N2.4 billion available for the same purpose. “This, clearly, is a demonstration of purposeful leadership, as the money, now in circulation, will stimulate economic activities and contribute in no small measure to cushioning the effects of the current recession on residents.”

Ganiyu noted that majority of the political appointees that received  severance allowance served during the PDP government. “The APC administration, led by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has, however, demonstrated that we can rise above petty politics by according the rule of law a canon of governance and elevating our shared humanity above political-mongering.”

He hoped that “the APC government will sustain this political momentum and the development strides, which its adversaries have even acknowledged, until they percolate the entire strata of our society and set the state on the path of irreversible progress.”

The pro democracy group urged other states to emulate the government of Ogun State in the interest of a better Nigeria.