Osun Accuses Lawyer Of Engaging In Distractive Activism

Osun State government has accused an Ibadan based lawyer, Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo of engaging in distractive and interloping activism by his threat to drag the government to court over non-payment of allowances owed judicial officials by the previous administrations in the state.

The government through the spokesperson to the state governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed in a statement said the action does not only amount to meddlesomeness but a misrepresentation and misinterpretation of employment relationship between employees and the employer.

It would be recalled that Adebayo had issued a threat of legal action against the Osun State government over non-payment of allowances owed by judicial officials by the previous administrations in the state.

Reacting the government said: “As much as we will not wish to attribute the threat of legal action to politicization of service matters, we must remind the public that the lawyer expressly affirmed that the allowances were owed by Aregbesola/Oyetola administrations.

“We can add for him that the Adeleke administration inherited from the two previous governments of the All Progressive Congress a whopping salary, pension and employment related debt to the tune of N100 billion. This is outside another state debt of over N400 billion.

“The Adeleke administration has however commenced payment of such salary and pension debt amidst cash crunch and equally competing demands for state expenditure.

“We must also put on record that Osun judicial workers have their unions and it is not in doubt that the union leadership is capable and able to advance the interest of their members. The Unions are also not unmindful of the inherited rot and ongoing efforts of the government to holistically address their issues.

“We are constrained to therefore urge the lawyer to avoid distractive and interloping activism. As we believe he is not politically recruited, he should adopt another dignifying route rather than usurping labour dispute questions which only the unions and their employers can undertake.”