Former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiola Omisore, has stated that President Bola Tinubu should not be blamed for the withheld local government funds in Osun State.
Speaking during an appearance on Arise Television, Omisore warned the Osun government not to politicise the situation.
He stressed that the problem was between the state government and the local government workers.
According to him, “This thing is not concerned with the general election. It’s not concerned with the president at all. It has to do with local government and the state. So don’t blame the president…And don’t blame the APC. Put your blame on the PDP who has not allowed them to work or who abducted NULGE.”
Omisore explained that the main issue affecting Osun State was the seven-month strike by members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), which had paralysed operations across all councils in the state.
“The major issue in our state today, which nobody has mentioned, is NULGE. Local government staff and employees have been on strike or have been abducted since February, that’s seven months now. That’s the crucial matter,” he stated.
He criticised stakeholders and senior lawyers who, according to him, failed to focus on the real issue, insisting that the local government crisis had been misrepresented in public discourse.
“Anybody that wants to get involved in Osun State’s local government reserve fund, it’s not about the president or Governor Adeleke; it’s about NULGE, the staff who ran away. I’ve not seen a situation where workers have left work for the past seven months,” Omisore said.
He further argued that questions around autonomy and funding would remain unresolved until the strike was addressed
“So basically, who do you give this money to? Do you give this money to the elected officers or to non-officials who are not at work? It comes several times back as a government sign; no, no, you are not available to sign,” he added.
Omisore also rejected claims that President Tinubu was withholding the funds to influence political realignments in Osun State.
“Adeleke has made an attempt to come to APC. We stopped the. Why do we have to? I’ve said this in several interviews I’ve had in the past. Adeleke was struggling, was begging to come to APC,” he revealed.
The former APC national secretary urged stakeholders, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and senior lawyers, to “address the issue holistically” instead of misrepresenting facts, stressing that the matter was primarily administrative and not political.
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