From Half Salaries to Ruined Lives — Adeleke Says Aregbesola’s Evil Legacy Still Palpable in Osun

Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has unleashed a scathing rebuttal to former Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s veiled threat to remove him from office in 2026, branding Aregbesola’s eight-year rule as a dark era marked by betrayal, suffering, and destruction in Osun’s history.

In a statement released in Osogbo by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Governor Adeleke condemned Aregbesola as a man who left a trail of pain and debt, accusing him of running Osun State into economic and social chaos through reckless policies and heartless governance.

“Mr. Aregbesola is the architect of mass suffering in Osun,” the statement reads. “He subjected workers to half salaries, looted state funds through inflated and abandoned projects, introduced scam educational gadgets, and plunged the state into crippling debt. His tenure is not only forgettable but remains the worst in our history.”

Reacting to Aregbesola’s boast about returning to power in 2026, Adeleke described it as the hallucination of a failed leader desperate to erase his shameful record. “It is ironic that a man who should be apologizing to the people of Osun for eight years of pain now has the audacity to talk about leadership again,” the statement said.

Governor Adeleke noted that under his administration, deliberate efforts are being made to repair the damage Aregbesola left behind. These include the payment of 28 months of half salaries, settling nearly ₦60 billion in pension debts, and rescuing the state from the suffocating debt profile.

“Aregbesola’s wickedness against workers and retirees is legendary,” Rasheed continued. “Many pensioners died in agony under his watch. He withheld cooperative deductions, misapplied pension funds, and ran the civil service into the ground.”

In a biting Yoruba proverb-laced conclusion, Adeleke’s spokesperson said:

“Aregbesola is like a shrew unaware of its stench. 2026 will not be a return to darkness, but a moment of reckoning where the people of Osun will punish those who inflicted years of hardship on them.”

The governor affirmed that Osun people have tasted good governance under a responsive administration and are not willing to return to an era marked by fear, unpaid wages, and lost dignity.