The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of paying N20billion to a contractor, Slava Yediteppe handling one of the road projects in the state, from the N34billion bailout received from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Director of Media and Strategy of the PDP in Osun State, Mr Diran Odeyemi, alleged the governor in a statement made available to journalists in Osogbo on Sunday.

The party described Aregbesola’s decision as a misplacement of priority, lamenting that civil servants in the state are wallowing in abject poverty due to unpaid salaries.

It will be recalled that PDP recently alleged the governor of fixing the N35 billion in two banks.

The party however said the governor had clearly proved to everybody that he did not care about the suffering of the workers who had not been paid for nine months.

The statement read: “We have it on good authority that the payment was effected last Thursday and we have noticed that the contractor has returned to site with its men and equipment within 24 hours as requested by the governor.

“Much as we believe the road project is ideal, we wonder why an inflated road contract awarded at N1 billion per kilometre has suddenly become the priority of Governor Aregbesola at this particular period of nine months unpaid salary, if not because of some under current deals to siphon funds and short-change the people of Osun state.

“This perhaps is the reason why the governor said he would only pay half of March salary for workers at a meeting he held with them last week,” it read.

“Having spent over N500 million for biometric screening of the state workforce in 2013, which led to a monthly payment of N50 million to a Lagos based consultant to undertake direct payment of workers’ salaries since then, we wonder why another screening is being done in 2015 by another Lagos-based consultant. All these are the reasons why Osun State is in debt and could not perform.”

Meanwhile, all efforts to get the reaction of the media aide to the governor, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, by our correspondent, proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.

Reacting to PDP allegation, the spokesperson for the All Progresive Congress in Osun State, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi said: “Our dear colleagues, if you believe in this egregious nonsense of the PDP, you may go ahead and publish. But if you must be true to your profession, we urge you to investigate before you publish.”

Oyatomi added: “In the last four years or so, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, has been in power, the PDP has told so much lies that we are just tired of responding to their lies. The banks the PDP mentioned are there for the public to corroborate facts or fallacies of the PDP. We have had enough of this irresponsibility."