Tony Osauzo, Benin
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Edo State September 19 gubernatorial election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, yesterday condemned the reported non-payment of three months allowance due to the state COVID-19 mobile screening team by the Obaseki administration.
Ize-Iyamu ‎in a statement signed by the Director of Communication and Media of his Campaign Organization, John Mayaki, described the actions of the Edo State Government towards the “patriotic” screening team as “callous, inhumane, and unacceptable” especially amid allegations of the Governor’s alleged 15 billion naira payment to the PDP for its primaries and ticket”.
He demanded immediate payment of the allowances alongside a public statement of apology by the state government and reassured the screening team of his solidarity and support to ensure that all their demands are met without any retributive actions.
“We observed today with concern the protest staged by young men and women of our state engaged by the Obaseki-led Edo State Government to form the mobile team that conducted screenings for COVID-19 in Edo State over Governor Godwin Obaseki’s refusal to pay their due allowances for three full months.
“These people are patriotic citizens who carried out an important assignment, at great risk to their own personal health, which proved crucial in the fight against the viral disease in the state. To see them subjected to such indignity and inhumane treatment by the Obaseki-administration is saddening and extremely disappointing.
“We find it especially odious and unacceptable that this is happening while Governor Godwin Obaseki is widely credited to have caused a ‘money rain’ in the PDP with a particular media report and EFCC petition alleging that he spent 15 billion naira on the PDP tax collectors and delegates to secure the party’s governorship ticket.
“While his new-found allies in the PDP celebrate a new dawn of cash supply from questionable sources, responsible and dutiful workers on the payroll of the state such as the COVID-19 mobile screening team are left unpaid in the middle of an economic disruption that has caused a price hike in the cost of basic goods”, the statement said.
It expressed “solidarity with the protestors as they struggle for what is rightfully theirs and convey our commitment to ensure that all their demands are met quickly and without retributive actions feared by some with knowledge of the tyrannical tendencies of the Obaseki-administration”.