Why I never collected salary as Osun Governor – Aregbesola insists

Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, has denied a media report that he collected salaries during his eight-year tenure as Governor of Osun State.

The outspoken Minister described the report as “entirely a piece of fiction, a good example of fake news and disreputable journalism”.

The former governor’s reaction was contained in a press statement released on Saturday, signed by his Media Aide, Sola Fasure.

Responding to a report published by an online medium, Daily Post, titled, ‘Aregbesola allegedly received 96-month salary arrears in secret, claims he did not’, Aregbesola emphatically stated that he never collected a single dime as salary while he was Governor of Osun State.

According to the statement, the Minister voluntarily donated his eight-year salary to the state because, “the state government provided accommodation, security, transportation, food and other conveniences for him and would not need to pay for these from his pocket.

“He also explained that all his children are grown up and have graduated and he would not need to pay school fees again”.

Aregbesola challenged the author of the report to back up their claims with documented evidence, “author of the report claims to have got the information from some anonymous government officials. He provides no evidence. The report fails basic journalistic ethical requirement that only truth and verifiable fact should be reported as news.

“Reading through it, one is not in doubt that the evil intention behind the piece was to smear and cast aspersion on the integrity of Ogbeni Aregbesola”.