APC Blasts Adeleke For Extending Osun HoS Tenure Till 2026

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has condemned the extension in service of the state Head of Service, Mr Samuel Aina by the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, describing it as “unprecedented and a crass administrative aberration.”

Governor Adeleke, in a statement issued by Olawale Rasheed, his spokesperson, extended Aina’s tenure till 2026 “to deepen and conclude ongoing reform and revitalization of the civil service.”

“The approval which was convened to the Head of Service via a letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor cited constitutional powers conferred on the Governor with respect to the appointments of top civil service officials.

“The State Governor acknowledged the commitment of Elder Aina to efficient public service and productivity, appreciating his successful implementation of various public sector reforms after governorship approvals,” the statement read.

But, APC expressed surprise, claiming that the “HoS whose retirement date was January 24th, 2024, has his service extended by three years by the state Governor Adeleke without caring for a jolt about the injury his fiat would have on the extension.”

The opposition party noted that the extension was capable of triggering a revolt in the state civil service.

In his reaction to the development, the Osun State chairman of the APC, Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, on Sunday, said that the scenario marked the beginning of the destruction of the state civil service by Adeleke.

Lawal opined that the implication of the three-year service extension of the HoS by Adeleke is that other senior categories of officers that are due for retirement so soon like the state Accountant-General might start to lobby for extension of service for as many years as possible.

“Yielding to pressure of elders’ council of a town to extend the service of a career officer is a virtual destruction of the service.

“The civil service should be allowed for healthy competition so as not to create avoidable violence among the officers in the service.

“We, as a party, are not caught unawares by the latest happening in the state civil service as one does not need to be a soothsayer to state that the whirlwind of the maladministration of Governor Adeleke which has blown in some tertiary institutions in the state will continue its onslaught as long as the ineptitude and governor-by-proxy continues to occupy the driver’s seat in the political theatre of the state.

“It must be noted that many administrative lapses were witnessed under the watch of this Head of Service who had his service extended for additional three years.

“Let me call on the genuine stakeholders of the Osun State project that their silence in the haphazard manner that the push-and-start PDP governor has been running the affairs of this state as an extension of the Adeleke Dynasty private property will set the state back by many years among the comity of states in this country.

“As stakeholders, we must, therefore, not fold our arms and keep quiet. Osun is our collective patrimony. We must rise up to the occasion,” Lawal stated.