The All Progressives Congress, Ondo State chapter, has berated the Ondo State Government for exploiting unpaid civil servants in the state to the tune of N2, 000 each, as a precondition to obtain a social welfare card known as Kaadi Igbe Ayo.
The party in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Omo?ba Abayomi Adesanya, said the project was another means of extorting money from members of the public, which it said was common in the Governor Olusegun Mimiko administration.
The statement read in part, ?The Ondo State APC wishes to bring the attention of the general public, especially the good people of Ondo State, to the anti-people and wicked policies of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko-led administration, which have taken a dangerous upward flight.
?Governor Mimiko is now forcing the civil servants in the state to pay N2,000 each to obtain Kaadi Igbe Ayo. The Ondo APC sees the action of Mimiko as unlawful and a mere duplication. This card is valueless and ineffective, as it is another wicked act of Mimiko to extort money from the same civil servants, that he has not paid their August salaries and other entitlements.
?This card is a duplication of effort and a waste of resources as the card has almost the same information as the National Identity Card and the National Driver Licence. This is the height of government?s wickedness to its work force.?
The party alleged that over N5bn of tax payers? money had been spent on the project without corresponding benefits for the people of the state.
However, the state?s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, told our correspondent that the APC was grasping at straws.
Akinmade said the party was only trying to be relevant in the state as it had no value in the state.
The government spokesperson said it was hypocritical of the APC to criticise Mimiko in Ondo when the party was not paying salaries in Ogun, Osun and Ekiti.
He said Kaadi Igbe Ayo was a social security card and it facilitates the systematic development of databases for financial palliatives and the use of public facilities such as public transport and subsidised consumer products.
?When the scheme was introduced, everyone was told to register for free and over 700,000 people did. But for those registering after the period, it is N2, 000. You can?t expect everything to be free,? he said.
