I will donate my allowance to Osun workers – Murray-Bruce

Opeyemi Oshoko |

Senator Ben Murray Bruce, representing Bayelsa East Senatorial District has promised to donate his wardrobe allowance to the unpaid workers in Osun State and widows in Bayelsa state.

He said this through its twitter handle, adding that he would not reject the wardrobe allowance but use it to alleviate the suffering of Osun workers.

However in a swift reaction, the Osun State government condemned the lawmaker, saying he was playing to the gallery by trivialising the issue.

According to the Senator as soon as the wardrobe allowance is paid, it will be divided into two. “Half will be publicly given to the NLC Chairman Osun, the other half will be publicly given to the head of widows association in my community of Aksasa”, he added.

He said “I, Ben Murray Bruce, will not sit down idly, while my fellow citizens die because salaries have not been paid. As a first step, I am immediately donating my wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers in Osun State and widows in my Constituency.We are starting in Osun, but we will not end there. I will do as much to help workers who’ve not been paid in other states.”

He, however, called on his friends and followers to make contributions to alleviate the plight of the workers.

Reacting, the Director Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor Osogbo, Mr Semiu Okanlawon lamented that the legislator was joining the fray of politicians trivialising the issue in a “ridiculous manner.”

Okanlawon said “my attention has been drawn to a tweet by a member of the Upper chamber of the National Assembly Senator Ben Murray Bruce of the Peoples Democratic Party from Bayelsa saying he will not reject the alleged hefty pay for members of the National Assembly but collect it and donate to Osun workers.”

“It is saddening and tragic that Mr. Murray Bruce whom many had accorded a lot of respect is too early in the day joining the fray of politicisation and trivialising the salary issue affecting more than half of the states of the federation in this ridiculous manner”, he said.

Describing the Senator’s gesture as saddening, he said “while Nigerians are in hot debate over the alleged jumbo pay and the mood of the country Murray Bruce seems to have turned the plight of Nigerian workers to a thing of entertainment.”

He said: “Of all the states in the federation who are battling to pay salaries as a result of the precarious economic situation his party the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, threw Nigeria into why is it that it is Osun he wants to take his pay to? This is certainly playing to the gallery and nothing but a mockery in the faces of Nigerian workers and not only of Osun extraction.”