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Osun
State Governor Rauf Aregbesola (Image source: The Punch)
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The Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, and the Senator
representing Bayelsa-East senatorial district, Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce clashed on
Thursday over Aregbesola’s inability to pay workers’ salaries.
The faceoff started after
Murray-Bruce, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, said on his
official Twitter handle that he would donate his wardrobe allowance of
over N500,000 to the unpaid workers in Osun State and widows in his home state
of Bayelsa.
The Punc report continues:
Murray-Bruce, who is the
Chairman of the Silverbird Group, said he would give the money to the Chairman
of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State who would distribute the money to
the unpaid workers.
He wrote, “I, Ben
Murray-Bruce, will not sit down idly while my fellow citizens die because
salaries have not been paid. As a first step, I am immediately donating my
wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers in Osun State and widows in my
constituency.
“We are starting in Osun but we will not end
there. I will do as much to help workers who have not been paid in other
states. I call on all my friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter
to donate non-perishable food items for these our brothers in need.
“As soon as my wardrobe
allowance is paid, half will be publicly given to the NLC chairman in Osun
State while the other half will be given to the head of widows association in
my community of Akasa.”
However, Aregbesola
described Murray-Bruce’s statement as the height of hypocrisy.
The governor, in a
statement by the Director. Bureau of Communication and Strategy Office, Mr.
Semiu Okanlawon, said it was unfortunate that the senator could trivialize such
a sensitive issue.
He wondered why it was
Osun State – out of the over 15 states that had not paid salaries – that
Murray-Bruce wanted to donate his money to.
The statement read, “My
attention has been drawn to a tweet by a member of upper chamber of the
National Assembly, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, of the PDP from Bayelsa, saying he
will not reject the alleged hefty pay for members of the National Assembly but
collect it and donate to Osun workers.
“It is saddening and
tragic that Mr. Murray-Bruce whom many had accorded a lot of respect is too
early in the day joining the fray of politicization and trivializing the salary
issue affecting more than half of the states of the federation in this
ridiculous manner.
“While Nigerians are in hot
debate over the alleged jumbo pay and the mood of the country, Murray-Bruce
seems to have turned the plight of Nigerian workers to a thing of
entertainment. Of all the states in the federation who are battling to pay
salaries as a result of the precarious economic situation his party, the PDP,
threw Nigeria, why is it that it is Osun he wants to take his pay to?”
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