Ekiti PDP, APC trade accusations of funds misappropriation
THOUGH the inauguration of the new all-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Assembly ended the impeachment threat to the governor, the dusts have once again been unsettled in Ekiti State as the ruling party and now opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) trade allegations of financial impropriety.
While the APC yesterday accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of diverting the sum of N720 million as payment for his unfinished first term and another N650 million monthly to his “election contractors,” the PDP claimed that the government had just discovered that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, diverted N4 billion to his party through inflated workers’ salaries.
The PDP disclosed that over 250 dead persons and over 1,000 ghost workers were discovered in the ongoing workers’ verification exercise in the state, a claim the APC described as diversionary and Fayose’s “old practice of falsehood and blackmail to divert attention from proven cases of sharp practices in governance.”
In a statement, the APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, expressed dismay that Fayose was just realising that Fayemi diverted N4 billion after eight months in office and after he had been exposed as an enemy of workers, having owed salaries and pensions while awarding himself N720 million and paying back N650 million to his election contractors.
“It is laughable that as much as 4 billion was diverted and or embezzled by the Fayemi administration and Fayose is just knowing eight months after assumption of office, pretending that a kangaroo verification exercise had revealed this,” the statement read.
“Fayemi had earlier offered his administration for probe when Fayose started a similar campaign of calumny to cover his tracks in financial mismanagement but the governor had no courage for such exercise because there was nothing to probe.
“This is an afterthought that exposes his ignorance and confusion. If Fayose is sure of his facts, he should not waste time in taking his case to the EFCC. There is no deduction anywhere.
“Even for the two years that federal allocations to the state dwindled with as much as N500 million, Fayemi was still paying workers’ salaries with overdraft until Fayose, as governor-elect, wrote to banks to stop it, so how was any deduction and diversion possible under that situation?
“The biometric system was so transparent that it did not allow ghost workers syndrome, but since the PDP is now saying its government had detected 1,000 ghost workers, we are interested in unmasking the ghosts, which we believe is the governor’s making, and we demand that the names of these ghost workers be published.”
According to the APC, the claims came up because it had put Fayose’s administration on the spot over his inability to pay workers and the stoppage of his predecessor’s poverty reduction programme, among others.
It added: “With the money saved from the cancellation of empowerment schemes, refusal to fund security agencies, job cuts, cuts in allowances, refund of N24 billion by the Federal Government, six moratorium on bond repayment, abandonment of capital projects initiated by Fayemi and non-award of fresh capital projects, APC will not stop asking the governor to fulfill his obligations to Ekiti people.”
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