The governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Olusegun Akinwusi has cautioned the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola to stop inducing the state public workers for votes.

Akinwusi in a statement issued in Osogbo, Osun state capital titled “Stop this dangerous trend of politicization of the civil service” accused Aregbesola of causing disaffection among the state workers.

However, he called on the state workers to be wary of the governor’s tactics, saying it was a mockery for a regime that failed to recognize the worth and importance of civil servants in the last four years to wake up four weeks to election to curry their favours.

According to the former Head of Service HOS, public servants are saddled with the sacred duties of ensuring continuity of government institution and are expected to be anonymous, neutral and impartial and therefore should enjoy security of tenure.

“In Osun state today, the yardstick to enjoy a measure of freedom on the job is to be a card carrying member of All Progressives Congress APC.

“To retain your job, you have to attend campaign rallies and political meetings. The civil service cells or branches of the party are as vibrant as any card carrying member of APC.

“Recently, several meetings are summoned even by the Speaker of the State Assembly to lure, cajole, intimidate and appeal to workers to go to their various towns and villages on behalf of the APC.

“It is a regular routine now for state commissioners to enquire openly those who would vote for them. The latest is the sharing of money and rice to induce and buy workers’ support. Large sums of money are regularly disbursed to Local Government staffers to buy their conscience”, he stated.

Akinwusi called on Aregbesola to desist from tampering with the civil service system, saying the choice or preference at poll is a personal decision, “but when such choices become an imposition, it is fraught with a lot of dangers”.

The SDP candidate appealed to well-meaning indigenes of the state to persuade the state governor and his cohorts to stop this, while noting that all institutions of government in the state had been bedeviled by “one malady or another”.

He added, “The civil servants also should know their friends. They should not for a temporary gratification sell out the future. “And more importantly, all the atrocities against civil servants at the anticipated return to power, the consequences of this for workers and the system should never be compromised”.

Akinwusi promised the state workers that if elected as the governor, he will take the welfare of the state public servants as the highest priority because civil service as the oldest institution all over the world is indispensable to democracy.