With less than a year left in office, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has promised to resign if anybody can prove that he borrowed the sum of N56billion as alleged by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fayose, who insists that he has not taken a loan as governor since he resumed office for a second term in October 2014, made the promise in a tweet on Monday.
If they can present evidence that I borrowed N56bn, I will resign.
— Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) December 18, 2017
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor instead accused the immediate past APC administration of Dr Kayode Fayemi of spending money on needless projects.
The same APC people who signed N210m contract for annual maintenance of the central Air Conditioner they installed in the Oke Ayoba are the ones still talking, they don’t have shame at all.
— Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) December 18, 2017
In a statement on Monday, the state APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, had accused the governor of spending N56billion on white elephant projects awarded to companies belonging to his cronies for personal benefits.
He berated the governor for allegedly always lying to the public, saying the latest revelation had put to rest his “shameless lies in pursuit of fraudulent agenda for personal benefit while workers are unpaid for nine months.”
Olatunbosun added, “How can Fayose commit the state to so much debts, collect over three years allocations and other financial reliefs from the Federal Government, yet he is owing workers and pensioners for months?
“He is taking advantage of every opportunity to criminally exploit the Ekiti people, many of whom are sick; others are dying while the governor and his family members are contractors executing inflated contracts.
“Fayose will surely account and pay back every penny he and his family took from Ekiti coffers through his white elephant projects, and for the first time, he will know that Ekiti people are no fools that he calls them.”
However, the Ekiti State Government condemned the report that the state borrowed N56bn since Fayose assumed office and that a fresh N25bn loan was applied for.
In a press release on Monday, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said, “There is no recent bulletin from the DMO website concerning debt owed by any state as claimed in the false report. Nigerians, especially Ekiti people, can visit the DMO website for further clarification.
The APC people are claiming that I borrowed N56bn, why not ask the DMO and other agencies of the FG publish details of the N56bn that they said I borrowed?
I only got N10bn GRANT from ECA and the grant was given to all States. I did not take any loan.
— Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) December 18, 2017
“The only fresh loan taken by the government of Fayose was the N10bn grant from the Excess Crude Account, which was released to all states for capital projects, N2.8bn requested from the Wema Bank to pay the State Universal Basic Education Board counterpart fund out of which N1bn has been accessed and N600m for MDGs counterpart fund, which has been repaid.”
