…clears Tinubu over withheld LG allocations

The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of masterminding the ongoing strike by the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), dismissing attempts to hold President Bola Tinubu responsible for the inability of Local Councils to access their allocations.

In a statement signed by Kola Olabisis, the Director of Media and Information of APC, alleged that Governor Adeleke had been working in cahoots with the leadership of NULGE to sustain the sympathy strike that paralysed governance at the grassroots for months.

The party maintained that there are legally recognised Chairmen and Councillors in all the Local Government Areas of the State, following the Court of Appeal judgment of February 10, 2025, which reinstated APC’s Council Executives.

The APC stated that rather than allow the Councils to function and access their federal allocations, Governor Adeleke allegedly instigated NULGE to withdraw the services of council workers, thereby crippling local administration.

“Why is it that Governor Adeleke is not bold enough to tell the unsuspecting members of the public that he is the one who has been working in cahoot with the leadership of the state chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to withdraw the services of the council workers in a sympathy protest since then?

“What could be the rationale behind a state chief executive sponsoring a strike of the council workers against his own government for a selfish reason when it is known to all and sundry that such a protest would affect the people negatively at the grassroots level?

“The stakeholders in the Osun State project both from within and outside the state should impress it on Governor Adeleke that it is only an act of wickedness and lack of empathy on the part of the governor that could make him imbibe such unpopular and anti-democratic route.

“Must Governor Adeleke be playing politics with everything without thinking of the untoward effects it would have on the people?

“The sponsored interest groups who have been labelling President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for being responsible for the inability of the council chairmen to access the accumulated local government allocations from the federation account should redirect their plea to Governor Adeleke to release the NULGE to resume work in all the Local Government Councils.

“It is because the Governor Adeleke-led administration has been the one preventing the NULGE to resume that has resulted to the inability of the traditional rulers in the state to be paid their statutory allowances and salaries.

“With the NULGE staff on the sympathy strike with Governor Adeleke, there are no local government workers who would prepare the salaries of the traditional rulers in the state. If only for the sake of the royal fathers in the state, Governor Adeleke should sheathe his sword and allow the NULGE to call off their sympathy strike”, the APC noted.