Ogun LG health insurance scandal deepens as workers allege salary deductions without access to healthcare benefits under state scheme
In a shining example of compassionate and functional governance, Abia State Governor Alex Otti has signed the Senior Citizens Bill into law, entitling every Abia resident aged 60 and above to a free monthly salary, completely free medical bills, and other life long benefits until death.
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This is what real leadership looks like, a working system that honours those who sacrificed for the state, giving them dignity and security in their old age. Abia has set the standard.
Now contrast this with the shameful disaster unfolding in Ogun State under Governor Dapo Abiodun.
While Abia delivers tangible welfare to its senior citizens, Ogun State workers, particularly at the Local Government level, are being shamelessly exploited and abandoned.
The much hyped Ogun State Health Insurance Scheme introduced by the Dapo Abiodun administration has turned out to be a cruel joke.
Despite continuous deductions from the meagre salaries of Local Government staff, the scheme is yet to take effect.
Months after deductions began, nothing has happened. Local Government workers across Ogun State have been kept completely in the dark.
All inquiries about when the health insurance will become operational are met with dead silence from the government.
These hardworking men and women, who form the backbone of grassroots service delivery, are now neglected and suffering from various ailments without access to proper medical treatment.
Many cannot afford basic healthcare, yet their salaries continue to be slashed every month for a programme that exists only on paper.
This is not governance, this is daylight robbery and criminal negligence!
Dapo Abiodun’s misplaced priorities have reached dangerous heights.
Despite Ogun State’s huge revenue from FAAC allocations and massive Internally Generated Revenue (running into hundreds of billions), the governor prefers to channel funds into federal government projects, irrelevant white elephant ventures, and other non-priority areas instead of taking care of the people.
Ogun’s senior citizens continue to rot in poverty with no monthly salary, no free healthcare, and no meaningful welfare package, unlike their counterparts in Abia who are now smiling.
Local Government retirees and serving staff are equally abandoned.
The same administration that boasts of “development” cannot even implement a functional health insurance scheme for its own workers after collecting their money.
This is the height of insensitivity!
Ogun State is blessed with abundant resources, strategic location, and industrious people.
Yet under Dapo Abiodun, the dividends of democracy have been hijacked. Our elders who built the state are neglected.
Our Local Government workers who keep the system running at the grassroots are humiliated, deducted from, and left to suffer in silence.
Enough is enough!
The people of Ogun State, especially our senior citizens and Local Government workers, deserve far better.
They deserve a Governor like Alex Otti who implements working systems that deliver real welfare, not one who runs a propaganda machine while the vulnerable suffer.
Dapo Abiodun must be held accountable.
He must immediately activate the health insurance scheme with refunds where necessary, introduce a comprehensive Senior Citizens Welfare Programme with monthly stipends and free healthcare, and stop diverting state resources to misplaced priorities.
Ogun Deserves Better.
Our Elders Demand Respect.
Our Workers Demand Justice!
The time for Dapo Abiodun’s neglect and excuses is over.
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Ogun State is watching. History will not be kind to leaders who abandon their people while pretending to govern.
Mariam Balogun is a contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, business, and public affairs.
