General News

OYO State Government says it is not withholding the monthly allocations to local governments in the state.

Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun, the state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, made the clarifications in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Ibadan.

Olatunbosun explained that the state government was only deducting salaries of local government workers and the primary schools teachers from the local governments’ allocations.

According to him, the state government has centralised the salary payment of the entire workforce in the state.

“The state government has taken it upon itself to be paying all the salaries of the entire workforce, both local and state governments workers.

“So, salaries of all local government workers and that of the primary schools teachers are being deducted before sharing the remaining allocation among the 33 local governments.

“The allegation that local governments in the state are not receiving monthly allocation is untrue,” the commissioner said.

On deplorable condition of roads, Olatunbosun said that the governor had directed local government chairmen to submit their proposals on five kilometres roads each from their respective council area for rehabilitation.

“The plan of the state government is to be grading the interlinking roads so as to make movement of inputs to the farms and produces back to the markets easier for farmers,” he said.

The commissioner said this is to ease the stress off the farmers in the state by repairing five kilometres rural roads across the 33 local government areas.

He said, “rural roads are routes that link farms and villages to urban centres.”

According to him, this is to facilitate easy transportation of agricultural products from the farm sites to urban areas.

He added that the state government, through its Road Maintenance Agency, has begun palliative work on some of the township roads, pending when full rehabilitation would begin.(NAN)

A.I

Tags: Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun