By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo 

A coalition of civil society organisations in Osun State, The Osun Mastermind, TOM, has blamed the refusal of the Federal Government to release local government allocation to the third tier of government in the state to the refusal of workers to go to work.

It would be recalled that workers at the local government council in Osun State under the aegis of National Union of Local Government Employee, NULGE, had shunned council secretariats since the battle over control of council began between APC and PDP elected officials.

Speaking at the monthly state-of-the-State address on Osogbo on Friday, TOM’s Executive Director, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, said the refusal of career officers to make themselves available for account opening led to the logjam with regards to council fund in the state.

His words, “On the release of fund to local government, the law is clear, every local government has an account officer, ordinarily, the signatory to local government account should not be the Chairman or elected official. It should be the career officers, but in this case those who ought to be at the saddle of affairs of the local government chose to go on strike for no reason. 

“How do you open/pay money into the account of local governments, whose officers that should append signature for account opening sit at home. The Federal Government might be wrong in wanting to release money to elected officials. But do you release money to a non-existing career officers. If the money is released, they will now jump from their so-called strike and want to resume, because there is money on ground to administer. If you have not been working in the past three or four months, you now expect that fund would be released to the account that you have to be a signatory to when you are not a functional worker at the council. It won’t happen”.

On the legitimacy issue, TOM opined that the February 10 judgement of the Appeal Court affirmed the legal stand of the APC elected officials and berated the state government for not abiding by the judgement.

He said, “We are to point out however, that the utter disregard for, not just the Appeal Court, but also the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, by the Osun State Government is a matter of grave concern. Where we understand that the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, is the number one Law Officer of the Federation, we must realize that his opinions are not just official, they are also binding”. 

The group wondered why the Osun State Government is not willing to work with local government elected Chairmen from a different party, when the Federal Government is working with the state despite belonging to a different party.

“The question that begs answers however, is why the Osun State Government is so unwilling to work with Local Government Chairmen elected under a different political platform. Where we respect the principles of separation of powers, should we not be willing to work together even if the political parties are not same? Has the APC-led Federal Government refused to work with the Adeleke Government because it is of the PDP? 

“We call on all men and women of good conscience to prevail on the Osun State Government to end this needless crisis that it has plunged the State into and allow the rule of law prevail. We are all people of Osun State, whether of the APC or PDP, and we must co-habit in peace”, added.