The Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salam, has defended the integrity of the State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, saying the governor remains a man of strong character, honesty and integrity.

The Speaker made the remarks in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of a workshop organised by the Anti-Corruption Academy for members of states Houses of Assembly from the South-West Zone of the country.

The Speaker rescued the governor from blame on the financial status of the state, stressing that it was the openness of the governor that exposed the financial predicaments of other states in the country.

He assured that the 34 billion naira bailout loan obtained by the state from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, would be use to address the challenges facing the state he therefore call on called on the civil servants to cooperate with the government to move the state forward.

The Speaker who spoke through his Deputy, Hon. Akintunde Adegboye said transparency and honesty go together and this has remained the watchwords of the present political leadership of Osun state.

He however dismissed the insinuations that the problem over unpaid salary in the state had to do with corruption, insisting that there was no iota of truth in the allegation.

While speaking, the Provost of the Anti-Corruption Academy, Professor Sola Akinrinade said the fight against corruption in the country cannot be undertaken by President Muhammadu Buhari alone he called on all law-makers, civil servants, members of the private sector and ordinary Nigerians to join in the fight against corruption.

“The agenda for the next three days is sensitization and capacity building to ensure that legislators are aware of the requirements of the law in relation to probity, accountability, integrity and transparency and the need for them to these values in the performances of their official duties,” he said.

Professor Akinrinade added that “the other part of it is the forewarning of what lies ahead for those who choose to pursue the path of perfidy, that there is the long arm of the law waiting to bring to justice all those who are caught perverting the process and helping themselves to unfair proportion of the national cake, especially the portions that do not belong to them.”