N11 billion wage bill: Oyo PDP tackles APC, threatens to open dirty past

The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples  Party (PDP) on Saturday has reacted to the campaign of calumny against the State Governor,  Engr., Seyi Makinde by APC,  saying if the trend continues, their dirty past would be recalled.
The party said,  the Governor had wooed foreign investors to the State as a result of his business visit to a recent business/investment forum in the United States of America (USA).
The ruling party in Oyo described as misrepresentation, statement by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC)  in the state, quoting the Governor as saying, “Oyo has a  workforce of 115,000 and pays a wage bill of N11 billion.”
The  statement  which was signed by the  Publicity Secretary of Oyo State PDP,   Engineer Akeem Olatunji, noted that, “those behind the attacks are uninformed, mischievous devious and attention seekers.”
The statement said: “the opposition APC and some political minions including one Mr. Hakeem Alao, who is claiming to be the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the last election, are confused and needed to be educated about running a state.
The party pointed out that the figure put out by Governor Makinde was a combination of state and local government workers and that the implementation of the minimum wage and incremental adjustment took the wage bill of workers in both tiers of government from N8 billion monthly to N11 billion.
The party added that Governor Makinde has not intention to loot the state at PDP was trying to make people believe adding that, the Governor has demonstrated his commitment to genuine governance in the state. 
“Makinde has proven through his policies and actions that integrity is non-negotiable and rekindled the hope of Nigerians that public accountability and transparency could be practised in governance.”

It added that the erstwhile ruling party is afraid of its shadows and thinks everyone would be like its leaders, who made a mess of governance and stole the state blind when given the opportunity to govern it.
“We read with bewilderment the statement credited to the crisis-ridden All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State in which it criticised Governor Seyi Makinde, following his well-articulated and widely-commended investment pitch during the recently concluded Nigerian-American Business Forum held at Florida, United States.
“In their usual frustrated nature, the APC tried to cast aspersion on another wonderful initiative of the Makinde administration: selling Oyo State to the world with a view to attracting investments and expanding its economy. 
“By leaving the meat of Makinde’s strategic proposal to investors to embrace Oyo State and the uncommon passion with which he advertised Oyo to hundreds of investors, to dwell on the figure of the Oyo State workforce and the wage bill, the APC showed itself as wicked and unconcerned about the prosperity of the state.
“In the statement, the APC or perhaps its attention-seeking publicity handlers, made unjustifiable claim that the 115,000 workforce and N11 billion wage figure quoted by the governor was fake and an attempt to loot. 
“It went into a rigmarole of the alleged figures of each segment of the workforce at the state and local government levels, claiming that workers at the local government councils were paid directly from the federation account. 
“One wonders whether the crisis of confidence rocking the APC has rendered everyone in it incapable of thinking straight. 
“If not, the writers of that statement would have been able to see that the total tally of the figures they pushed out was even more than the 115,000 quoted by Governor Makinde. 
“We also know that reasonable people will see that it is no-brainer that the figure and wage bill quoted by the governor was the overall workforce in Oyo State, a position, which the governor made clear in his statement.
“We have seen the deficit in the education of the APC members and we are ready to offer pro bono services in teaching them the art of governance and running a state. 
“One, Governor Makinde committed no blunder by saying that the workforce of Oyo State is 115,000; he did not say that was the figure of the workforce of the Oyo State government.
“Two, the local government workers and pensioners are not paid from federation account as claimed by the unlearned APC publicity handlers.