A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has described the withdrawal of services by local government workers in council areas in the state as pathetic and unfortunate.
Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker, said the workers’ actions had plunged the local government areas in the state into administrative paralysis, inflicting untold pains on the people at the grassroots.
While speaking with newsmen on Sunday in Osogbo, the APC chieftain appealed to workers to immediately return to work and save the council areas from total collapse.
Oyintiloye, a member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said that the provision of certain essential services in the last month at the local government across the state had been crippled due to the withdrawal of services by the workers.
He also said that clinics, primary health care centres, marriage registries, and administrative offices at the local government had been shut, subjecting pregnant women, students, and potential couples, among others, to untold hardship.
Oyintiloye said that many pregnant women at the grassroots could not access their routine immunisation. At the same time, many applicants who needed documentation necessary to apply for federal jobs could not also access the secretariats.
He said that since the council chairmen were elected at the council areas, there was no point for the local government workers to abscond from work.
Oyintiloye called on the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NUGLE) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state not to allow themselves to be used to frustrate local government administration in the state.
According to him, “since both unions are supposed to be apolitical, they should uphold the tenets of their creation and which is to serve all governments in power.”
Oyintiloye said that the council chairmen would liaise with security agencies to protect lives and properties and ensure that workers were adequately protected upon resumption.
The APC chieftain said that, “the perceived crisis in council areas had been put under control by the security agencies,” adding “that there is a peaceful atmosphere for workers to resume back to their duty posts.”
