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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Osun State Governor, Sen Ademola Adeleke, has told a former commissioner in Oyo State, Mr. Mutalubi Adebayo (SAN), to drop his threat of dragging him and the government to court over unpaid allowances of judges working in the state.
Adebayo had on Thursday gave Adeleke a 10-day ultimatum to pay arrears of allowances owed retired and serving judges in the state or face a legal action.
In the statement, which he personally signed, Adebayo said should Adeleke refuse to act on the request by September 30, a legal action to compel him to pay up would commence in a court of competent jurisdiction on October 3.
Reacting in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke said Adebayo’s action was not only tantamount to “meddlesomeness, but misrepresentation and misinterpretation of employment relationship between employees and the employer.”
He said while he would not immediately attribute Adebayo’s threat of legal action to politicisation of service matters, the governor reminded the public that the lawyer affirmed that the allowances were owed by Aregbesola and Oyetola administrations.
“We can add for him that the Adeleke administration inherited from the two previous governments of the All Progressive Congress a whopping salary, pension and employment related debt to the tune of 100 billion naira. This is outside another state debt of over 400 billion naira. The Adeleke administration has however commenced payment of such salary and pension debt amidst cash crunch and equally competing demands for state expenditure.
“We are constrained to therefore urge the lawyer to avoid distractive and interloping activism. As we believe he is not politically recruited, he should adopt other dignifying route rather than usurping labour dispute question which only the unions and their employers can undertake.
“As we assume the lawyer has good intention, he can rework his threat into an appeal to the State Governor to continue his ongoing phased payment of outstanding liabilities inherited from the previous administrations. He may further commend the Governor for acting for all Osun people by devising strategies to complete abandon projects and gradual payments of outstanding liabilities,” the statement added.