Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has dismissed the controversy which has trailed his directive that governmrnt workers in the state should present their primary school certificates before they can be paid their salary arrears from the bailout fund of about N35 billion from federal authorities.

He said: “The workers themselves had earlier suggested the move.”

According to Aregbesola, on his Twitter handle yesterday afternoon, “The civil servants themselves asked for a rigorous Staff audit, and this is simply one step in the verification process.”

He also tweeted: “The civil service is the machinery of government and we are driving the change which we promised them. The executive is leading the cost reduction by example.”

Governor Aregbesola restated his promise to pay workers all their outstanding salaries before the Eid-el-Kabir festival coming up at the end of this month.

•Photo shows Governor Aregbesola.