By Gbenga Olarinoye

Osogbo – Osun State House of Assembly has given the state government a clean bill of health over its spending of the last year bailout by the federal government to some state governments to pay salary arrears.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola

Labour unions and recipient banks of the N34.5 billion bailout funds given to Osun State government declared that the fund was exclusively used for payment of arrears of salaries, allowances in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) guidelines and directives.

In a statement by the Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, the representatives of the banks, Adebayo Yakub (First Bank), Musbau Oyeniran (Wema Bank) and Ola Adedeji (Zenith Bank) – and the labour leaders made the declaration while testifying before the State House of Assembly during the probing into the concessionary loan, popularly referred to as bailout fund  at a special plenary on Wednesday.

This was as the Accountant-General of the State, Akintayo Kolawole and the labour leaders said, the pension arrears were not captured in the bailout fund but the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in his magnanimity and agreement with labour decided that the pensioners, having served the state diligently, must be included in the disbursement of the fund.

The Assembly had directed some government officials, labour unions and relevant organisations to appear before it for the probe of the fund given to state by the Federal Government, subject to a motion by one of the lawmakers, calling for the probing of the fund.

According to the statement, the representatives of the three banks involved told the Osun legislators that, “We can confirm that we followed the CBN guidelines in the way and manner the bailout loan was disbursed. All the payment we made on the bailout fund were for salaries, allowances and pensions.

“The figures shown by the Accountant General and permanent secretary, Local Government affairs, were correct. We can also confirm that the balance shown are the balance figures in the banks.”

Also, the Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Jacob Adekomi and his counterparts from the Joint negotiation Council (JNC), Bayo Adejumo, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGEE), and Nigeria Union of Teacher (NUT), Wakeel Amuda, according to the statement, confirmed that they monitored the fund and found that it was used for salary, allowances and pensions.’’

The Speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Najeem Salaam, the statement further noted, said, based on the analysis made on the disbursement of the fund, there was no any other way it could be shown that the fund was used for the purpose of salary, allowances and pensions.