No fewer than 600 former political office holders in Ogun State, who served at the local government level, have expressed their grievances over alleged discrimination by the state government in the payment of their gratuities .
The politicians made their grievances known shortly after the presentation of the severance allowance cheques to former political office holders, who served between 2007 and 2015 in the state, at the Arcade Ground, Oke mosan, Abeokuta.
The former political office holders, who served at the council level between 2007 to 201O, were agitating for the payment of their gratuities totaling about N1billion, which, according to them, should have been N1.3billion.
The State Coordinator, Conference of Local Government Ex Political Office holders in the state, Hon. Jamiu Keshinro, said that the affected politicians felt cheated when they discovered that the state government added N560million to the previous N1.3billion to cater for politicians who served after the expiration of their own tenure.
Keshinro, who lamented that about 27 members had died in the past six years when their agitation began, accused the state government of favouring political office holders who served under Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
He said, ” We came here that all of us are going to collect our cheques . And we have been struggling for this in the past six years . It was yesterday that we got the information and we came today in happy mood that we are collecting it. But with the information that they are giving us now, they said N1billion for the payment of gratuities for the political class, those that served between 2007 to 2010 and ordinarily the figure for those that served at the local government level for our set alone was N1.3billion; even the money cannot cover us not to talk about those that came after us.”
“We later discovered that the governor had added N560million. We now discovered that the additional N560million was added because of those that came after us. They brought in the N560million to accommodate them. That is the reason why we are saying that we are not going to take this. We are ready for anything, we are ready to die here. They must give us our money. About 27 people have died at the local government level .” he added.
Keshinro, however, insisted that Governor Amosun should look for additional funds to pay the politicians.
He said, “We cannot continue like this. We are about 600 that were affected. We are here standing, waiting for our cheques. My advice is that the governor should look for additional money and make everybody happy. The governor should pay us” .
