The Osun State Government has dismissed claims that local government workers are being owed salaries due to the prolonged withholding of federal allocations, insisting that core wage payments have remained uninterrupted.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, described reports suggesting salary non-payment as misleading and inaccurate.
According to him, the state government has continued to meet its obligations to local government employees through internal financial interventions despite the absence of statutory allocations.
“There has been no interruption in the payment of core salaries to local government workers. Salaries are being paid fully and as due,” he said.
Alimi noted that although local government allocations — now estimated at about ₦230 billion — have allegedly been withheld for nearly a year, the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has sustained salary payments using state resources.
He said the intervention had helped maintain financial stability for workers and protected households from economic hardship.
However, the commissioner acknowledged that the withheld funds have affected the payment of certain allowances and supplementary entitlements typically financed from local government allocations.
“These obligations are structurally tied to funds accruing to the local government system and cannot be fully accommodated in the absence of those resources,” he explained.
Alimi added that the withheld allocations were originally meant to support grassroots administration, development projects, operational costs, and worker-related benefits, leaving local government finances significantly strained.
He stressed the need for clarity in public discourse, noting that while allowances have been impacted, salary payments remain consistent and uninterrupted.
The development comes amid a protracted political and legal dispute over local government control in the state, which dates back to the dissolution of councils elected under the administration of former governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress following Adeleke’s assumption of office in 2022.
The sacked officials reportedly resisted vacating their positions, resulting in competing claims of legitimacy and a prolonged institutional standoff.
