No internally displaced pensioners in Osun —Aregbesola

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, over the weekend, described a section of retired workers who recently set up camp for Internally Displaced Pensioners (IDP) in the state as unfair to his administration, saying they are bunch of ingrates.

He contended that there were no ‘Internally Displaced Pensioners’ in the state because his government gave priority to the welfare of pensioners.

Aregbesola, who spoke at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, where another section of pensioners held peaceful rally to demonstrate their support for his government, reiterated that at the twilight of economic challenges, he borrowed as much as N25 billion from banks to pay salaries and pension.

According to him, “we implemented 142 per cent increase in pension which other rich and buoyant states including Lagos have not implemented. No state government has paid as much as we have paid pensioners in Osun. We paid N9.5 billion to pensioners alone.

“The workers and pensioners are on my priority lists, In fact, we got N12 billion in Osun in 2016 and I paid N20.4 billion to workers and pensioners alone. And that notwithstanding, we are working and there are infrastructural development all over the state.”

“We are building schools and we are constructing roads. We are doing our best within the available resources. Our opponents should stop playing dirty politics with this pension issue.”