By Uche Amunike
The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has described the last-minute appointments made by his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola as malicious and outrightly reversed all of them to status quo, including new appointments, placements and major decisions taken with effect from July 17, 2022.
Speaking, during his inauguration as the sixth governor of Osun State, Sunday, he also declared all Osun state accounts frozen.
He said: ‘Mass employments were carried out without budgetary provisions for salary payments for the new employees; even when the state was struggling to pay salaries and deliver other services. Various hurried and criminally backdated contracts were awarded and again without budgetary provisions.’
‘Appointments of several Obas were hurriedly done without following due process, just to mention a few. All efforts to get the governor to set up a transition committee and submit hand-over notes in line with best practices proved abortive.’
‘It is therefore my desire to ask for your patience and understanding to give my administration a few weeks to review and sort out all the actions and malicious confusions which the immediate past administration created since July 17, 2022. Those actions were indeed vindictive measures against the people of Osun State for voting them out of office’, he added.
He further stated: ‘Consequently, I hereby issue the following directives which will be backed up with appropriate Executive orders, immediate freezing of all government accounts in banks and other financial institutions; immediate establishment of a panel to carry out an inventory and recover all government assets; an immediate establishment of a panel to review all appointments and major decisions of the immediate past administration taken after July 17, 2022; an immediate reversal to the constitutionally recognised name of our state, Osun State. All government insignia, correspondences and signages should henceforth reflect Osun State rather than State of Osun, which is unknown to the Nigerian constitution’, he concluded.
Meanwhile, the outgone governor, Gboyega Oyetola remained optimistic even till a few days to the inauguration of the new administration, expressing his belief that the current administration will be short-lived as he believed that he would return as governor through court processes. In his handover speech, he reiterated that he merely agreed to step down because he wanted to let the law take its course.
His speech partly read: ‘Motivated by God’s promise, my conviction, we promised to serve you with steady heart and hands. We promised that we would hit the ground running once we assume office. We gave our words that we would put you first and run a people-centred government. We pledged to uphold the best ideals befitting of an Omoluabi.’
‘As we draw the curtain on this first tenure, We are convinced that we neither reneged on our promises nor disappointed you. We kept faith in you and maintained fidelity to our electoral promises. It was our wish to continue to serve you but we are constrained by the outcome of the July 16 Governorship election which we are already challenging in court.’
‘As law-abiding citizens and government, we are stepping aside to allow the law to take its course’, the outgoing Gboyega Oyetola stated.
