Adeleke reveals why Aregbesola, Oyetola couldn’t pay staff salaries

Governor-elect of Osun, Ademola Adeleke, says former governor Rauf Aregbesola and incumbent governor Gboyega Oyetola were unable to pay civil servant salaries and pensions because they used state resources to service personal debts.

“Why they (Oyetola and Aregbesola administration) cannot pay them is because a lot of our money is going outside. A lot of our money is taken to Lagos or somewhere.

“The problem of when someone wants to run, they will go and borrow something or you have one godfather who you are borrowing money from. And at the end of the day, you will be paying debt. You will not be able to do anything,” Mr Adeleke said.

The governor-elect disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Monday night, a day after he was declared winner of the July 16 Osun gubernatorial election.

He was responding to the question of how he intends to offset the backlog of pensions and salaries his administration was set to inherit from successive governments.

Mr Aregbesola, a political protégé of former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, governed Osun from 2010 to 2018. He was succeeded by Mr Oyetola, a cousin to Mr Tinubu.

Mr Adeleke emerged winner of Osun’s governorship election, polling 403,371 votes to defeat incumbent Governor Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress who scored 375,027 votes.