Oyo Accord, APC trade words over reduction of political appointees’ salary

ACCORD Party has described the 50 per cent reduction in the salary and allowances of political appointees by the Oyo State government as an alleged ploy to carry out its agenda of reducing the salaries of civil servants by half.

In a statement, the party’s  publicity secretary, Mr Akeem Olatunji, claimed that what the government did was to first announce a reduction in the monthly takings of the political appointees, the truth of which he alleged had not been verified, and consequently justify a slash in workers’ salary by claiming to have the moral ground to do so.

Olatunji noted that at a time when a new minimum wage was being discussed by the Federal Government and the national labour unions on account of the drastic reduction in the purchasing value of the naira, a slash in civil servants’ salary would further impoverish the “toiling workers of the state.”

He challenged the APC-led government to publish the remuneration and salaries earned by the state political appointees in the last five years “in comparison to the proposed cut for transparency and accountability.”

Reacting through its director of publicity and strategy, Wale Sadare, the described APC said Accord’s statement as “the latest tantrums concerning the bold step taken by the administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.”

“Nigerians are lucky to have a disciplined and competent set of leaders in office at a time of recession like this otherwise the country would have been in total disarray.

“We are taken aback that a group of individual political players can decide to play politics with everything that has to do with governance and the destiny of the masses.

“However, we are aware of the crisis bedeviling the Accord Party in the state at present and we take this development for results of intra-party squabble since the whole world had commended the governor for being sensitive and courageous as usual.

“Any further attempt to set workers and the people of the state against the government would not succeed because as far as the Pacesetter State is concerned, there is transparency and accountability in government.”