Fayose wasted Ekiti’s N18bn Paris Club refund — Fayemi

GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, yesterday, accused his predecessor, Mr Ayodele Fayose of plundering the N18 billion Paris Club refund to the state.
Fayemi

Fayemi wondered how Fayose, could still be owing workers between four and eight months salaries and pension arrears of 10 months, despite the huge amount of money that accrued to the state from the Paris Club refund.

He also expressed worry over why the former governor preferred to divert the fund for other use, rather than attending to workers remunerations.

But in a swift reaction, Fayose told Governor Fayemi to stop complaining, but to use the over N30 billion his government already received from the Federal Government as refund on federal roads construction, arrears of Budget Support and Paris Club refund to pay workers salary instead of lying against him.

Fayemi, who spoke in Ado Ekiti, on Sunday evening, while appearing on the December edition of a programme tagged: Meet your Governor, said he had started giving incentives to security outfits in the state to ensure safety of lives and property.

His words: “Let those making the allegation come with verifiable proofs to substantiate their claim. Let them come with evidence.

“I have not collected any money in the fashion of road intervention or paris club refund. Fayose had the opportunity of paying bulk of the backlog of salaries and pensions. He collected a sum of N18 billion out of the N21.5 billion due to Ekiti in the fund, so what is left for Ekiti is just N3.5 billion which can’t pay a month if we add the overhead costs of subvented institutions.

“As we speak, we are doing a lot of cleansing and that had reduced the monthly pay to workers to N2.1b. Those not properly employed had been left out until they provide evidence. The medical workers that were employed on consequential ground had been reabsorbed.

“I decided to delay appointment of politicians into government to enable me pay our workers. With this, Ekiti can now know who the honest friend of the masses is.

“I don’t want to do media trial for anyone, so I have hired the services of a renowned audit firm to look into our finances and the forensic state’s accounts will be published during our 100 days in office in January, 2019.”
Stop complaining — Fayose

In his reaction, Fayose told Governor Fayemi to use the over N30 billion his government already received from the Federal Government as refund on federal roads construction, arrears of Budget Support and Paris Club refund to pay workers salary instead of lying against him.

Speaking through his Special Assistant on media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose exonerated his administration from the four months salary owed state government workers before the expiration of his tenure, saying; “It was on the basis of the N2.1 billion arrears of Budget Support and N14.1 billion Paris Club refund already approved for payment in June that he promised to clear the salary arrears. But due to his bitter politics, Fayemi blocked the payment and more than one month after receiving the payment, he is still following his usual path of deceit instead of paying the workers.

“Besides, the fund was meant for both the state and local governments and it is on record that Ekiti fell into the hardship of inability to pay salaries regularly as a result of debt incurred during Fayemi’s first tenure and the loans restructuring done at the instance of the Federal Government and the Federal Economic Council.”