ALFRED ADEGOKE ARRESTED AND RELEASED BY DSS OVER OSUN PENSIONERS’ PROTEST
ALFRED ADEGOKE ARRESTED AND RELEASED BY DSS OVER OSUN PENSIONERS’ PROTEST
Operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), apparently at the instance of the Osun State Government, have arrested Comrade Alfred Adegoke, Osun State Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), and Osun State Coordinator of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). He was picked up at his office today around 11.20 a.m. He was brutalised by the heavily armed DSS operatives. Other members managed to escape. He was later released by 2pm.
The arrest came barely 24 hours after pensioners held a mass protest in Osogbo over non-payment of pensions for several months. Members of DSM actively participated in this protest.
This arrest was the second attack the Aregbesola government has launched on members of the DSM and SPN in the last two years over the stand of the party on government policies.
These acts of impunity by the Osun State government must stop.
It should be recalled that the pensioners, like workers in the state, have not been paid since last November. The workers are currently on strike.
However, apart from Osun state, workers in other states under the control of both APC and PDP have not been also paid their salaries for many months. The governors of the affected states attributed their inability to pay to the decline in the monthly allocation as a result of slump in oil revenue. We however hold the main reason for the non-payment is gross mismanagement of the state resources.
We reiterate our demand for immediate payment of all salaries and pensions by Osun state government and others.