Adeleke gives free SIMs to workers as APC alleges spy plot

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has launched the “Glo Imole Connect Initiative,” describing it as a major step toward boosting efficiency and productivity in the state’s public service.

The program, launched in partnership with telecommunications giant Globacom, will provide 20,000 mobile lines for public servants across the state under a Closed User Group (CUG) arrangement with significantly reduced call and data rates.

Speaking at the launch on Wednesday, the governor said the intervention was not just about providing SIM cards but about making the public service more responsive, better connected, and more productive.

Adeleke said, “One of the challenges in public governance has always been the difficulty of seamless communication. Information does not always move quickly or efficiently, and this has often led to avoidable delays and disconnections between agencies and officers across different levels. With this new arrangement, I am confident that we will begin to close those gaps and work in closer alignment.”

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state alleged that the distribution of free Glo SIM cards to workers was a ploy to monitor civil servants rather than a genuine attempt to enhance communication within the public service.

In a statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Mogaji Kola Olabisi, the APC claimed that the initiative was nothing but an espionage tactic using a centrally coded system to track conversations between striking members of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and reinstated APC council chairmen and councillors, especially on the issue of accumulated federal allocations.

The APC further mocked the Adeleke administration, saying it was shameful for a government to invite all workers, including striking NULGE members, merely to collect SIM cards when pressing issues such as unpaid local government allocations remain unresolved.

Olabisi maintained that no amount of backdoor tactics, including the free distribution of SIM cards, could save Governor Adeleke from defeat in the 2026 governorship election.