The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday described the threat by the chairmen of local government areas elected in 2022 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress to sack council employees for failing to resume duties as hatred for workers in the state.
It also commended the workers, who are members of the National Union of Local Government Employees, for obeying the Nigerian Labour Congress directive to stay off council secretariats.
Recall that the council chairmen, who resumed duties in the local government secretariats on Monday following a Court of Appeal judgment in Akure, which reinstated them on February 10, had threatened to sack council employees who failed to report for duty.
However, while reacting in a statement by the state’s PDP media officer, Oladele Bamiji, the ruling party described the threats “as an open demonstration of habitual hatred for public workers by the sadistic opposition.”
Pointing out that labour remains an indispensable partner in nation-building and the economic well-being of a state like Osun, Bamiji maintained that, without a doubt, workers “must never be treated like some unfortunate slaves, who could be ordered around by some angry infants to validate evil machinations against the state.”
The statement read, “The PDP urged the state government, through the Local Government Service Commission, to protect state workers in the local councils and insulate them against any unwarranted threats, especially now that the APC and its ignorant ball boys have resorted to open and unbridled death threats against innocent workers, whose only sin to APC is their resolve to protect themselves from the crossfire danger of violence orchestrated by the troubled opposition by withdrawing their services.”
In another development, the PDP called on security agencies in the state to begin a discreet investigation of APC stalwarts for alleged arms buildup, as the state inches towards electioneering for the 2026 governorship election.
Reiterating its commitment to peace as a panacea for social and economic stability, the PDP condemned the opposition APC for what it described as the inordinate pursuit of its impossible ambition in the state, warning them not to misconstrue the peaceful disposition of the leader of the state, Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, for weakness.
“We are not unaware of the false narratives of the APC accusing the PDP and its governors of importing thugs to the state. We know for a fact that such narratives were mere cover-ups for the naked assassinations perpetrated by the APC in recent times, concealed in the horrendous plot to usurp local government administration in the state,” the statement added.
