The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State have again engaged in a war of words over the state’s allocation from the Federal Government.
The APC, through its State Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of the PDP of mismanaging over N200 billion in federal allocations received by the state in the first 15 months of his administration.
Lawal criticised Adeleke for attending the 82nd birthday celebration of the veteran juju musician, Ebenezer Obey, in Lagos, while civil servants and pensioners in the state are allegedly yet to receive their March salaries.
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He said Government Adeleke , “turned himself to a video vixen at the at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, last Wednesday, at a time the civil servants and pensioners in the state were yet to receive their wage award for the month of March.
“The handlers of the governor are not doing enough to guide him aright, Adeleke singing and twerking session at the Sheraton Hotel was an executive show of shame which has diminished the rating of Osun State in the court of the public worldwide.”
Lawal questioned the rationale behind Adeleke’s “frolicking” in Lagos and Abuja, when the state is allegedly unable to justify the receipt of the over N200 billion in federal allocations and the N14 billion cash inherited from the previous administration.
The Osun APC Chairman added, “Could there be a justifiable reason under the sun for a governor who could not properly account for N39.5 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2023; series of the Federal Government palliative supports meant for the poor amounting to over N13 billion and other revenues from some donor agencies, to take to dancing and frolicking in the public?
“Why have the state workers and pensioners not received their inadequate palliative wage for the month of March? It is either the governor is wicked or the state is broke. Even if the payment is effected today, 9th day of April, it can’t atone for the suffering the governor has made the innocent workers and senior citizens to go through.
“It shall be written in a pencil against his name at the end of his ignominious tenure that Governor Adeleke came, danced, sang but refused to do the right thing”, Lawal stated.
He also criticised Adeleke for abruptly stopping the public school feeding programme implemented by his predecessors.
But reacting, the PDP, through its State Chairman, Sunday Bisi, dismissed the allegations as “a demonstration of desperation, disappointment and depression at the superlative performance of Governor Ademola Adeleke.”
Bisi accused the APC of “fabricating fake news, false figures and outright lying” and advised the opposition to “toe the path of honour by conceding defeat even before the 2026 election.”
Bisi argued that Adeleke has “clearly overwhelmed the opposition” and is making significant impacts in various sectors, including education, health, water, infrastructure, and worker welfare.
He accused the previous APC administration of failing to pay half salaries debt and pension arrears, while the current Adeleke government is clearing the debts and uplifting the living conditions of workers and pensioners in the state.
The PDP chairman further slammed the APC for “wickedly abandoning several roads and building projects,” which the Adeleke administration has now completed, saving the state billions of naira.
He defended the governor’s decision to stop the federal school feeding program, citing a multi-billion naira fraud investigation by the Federal Government.
His words, “A party under whose watch several pensioners died is reprehensibly attacking an Adeleke government that is not only paying pensioners regularly alongside the debt but has also enrolled all those pensioners in state health insurance schemes to cater for their health needs.
“An Osun APC that wickedly abandoned several roads and building projects is today having the temerity to challenge an Adeleke government that has completed several of such projects, saving billions of naira of state funds from waste and demonstrating that a government is a continuum.
“A party that failed woefully for four years has not learnt any lesson, hence its dishonorable lies about a federal school feeding programme which the Federal Government stopped to allow for investigation into a multi-billion naira fraud.
“Osun is in love with a Governor who is tasking himself and all appointees on the implementation of ongoing multi-billion naira infra plan that is designed to address the inherited 80 per cent infrastructure deficit.”