Rights Group Alleges Aregbesola of Diverting Paris Club Refund for Osun By-Election.

By Olabode Abolaji

A rights group, the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) has alleged the State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola of planning to divert the second tranche of Paris Club refund of N12.7 Billion accrued to the state into the funding of forthcoming Osun West Senatorial By-Election slated for July 8, 2017.

It also alleged that the sum of N75million was taken to Alimosho Local government area of Lagos State at the weekend for sharing among All Progressives Congress (APC) faithful that volunteered to be the party’s agent during the forthcoming by-election and as well agreed to transfer their Voters card from Lagos to Osun State during the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise ahead of the 2018 governorship election in the State.

In a statement by its Chairman, Comrade Alimi Adeniyi Sulaiman stressed that Aregbesola had also employed the service of the former Resident Electoral Commission (REC) in the State who hailed from Lagos State at the sum of N55million, for bribing of the electoral officials to compromise the by-election in favour of APC candidate, Mudasiru Hussein.

The group said that based on these reasons, the State government has been silent on the total amount it received out of the N516.38billion Paris Club refund shared to the 36 States of the Federation and plans on how to spend the money.

CSCEOS further stated that Governor Aregbesola has been working on the modalities to short-change the workers and pensioners in the State by using only 40 percent of the N12.7billion earmarked for the payment of backlog of salaries to pay just two months out of 12 to 13 months owed them in order to have enough funds to sponsor the forthcoming by-election and as well divert the remaining funds into other projects.

According to the statement, the Governor has been working round the clock to ensure justification for the spending of the second tranche of the Paris Club refund in order to give an impression of transparency urging labour unions in the state not to allow government divert their funds again.

The statement partly reads: “This is high time for every discerning people of the State to demand from Aregbesola to use the Paris Refunds loan to clear the backlog of workers and pensions due with gratuities before the conduct of July 8th,2017 Osun West Senatorial district by-election”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC had fixed July 8 for the Osun West Senatorial District By-Election after the Senator representing the district, Isiaka Adeleke died on April 23rd.