The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has warned Governor Ayodele Fayose against brainwashing Ekiti people on the fresh payment of Paris Club refund of N4.7b, saying that the meetings the governor is holding with workers and other stakeholders is a ploy to deceive the people with “ultimate goal to, as usual, divert the money for selfish motives”.
In a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said that Ekiti people are no longer deceived by the governor’s antics in always calling workers and other stakeholders to meetings to brainwash them on the state’s financial matters, stressing that such practice is a worn-out tactic to “fraudulently deny workers their salaries and con Ekiti people for selfish motives”.
He said: “Governor Fayose believes that he is wiser than all Ekiti people put together, which he recklessly celebrates in his contemptuous cliché as ‘Ekiti people are stupid’.
“The governor started his latest trick when he called Labour leaders to a meeting last month that Paris Club refund coming to the state would be N4.7b just to create the impression that he is running a transparent administration.
“We are aware that after collecting the money, he has started calling another round of meetings brainwashing workers that N4.7b Paris Club refund will not be enough to pay one month salary barely a month after he confessed that the actual Ekiti monthly wage bill is N1.7b and several months after he consistently lied that the state’s wage bill was N2.6b.”
Warning that Ekiti people would no longer tolerate “brazen lies to wickedly short-change the people”, Olatunbosun accused the governor of running a “fraudulent administration cloaked in a pro-masses rhetoric”.
He said: “The man that says he loves the people relies on lies to cheat the people while not compromising his own private comfort.
“Since the Paris Club and bailout issues became major sources of the state finances, Fayose is no longer talking about the state’s monthly statutory allocations of N1.9b and another monthly N1.3b Budget Support Facility he has taken for 11 months but which he diverted to purposes through which he can make personal gains.
“Up till this moment, Fayose has refused to make public the state internally generated revenue (IGR) profile, which stood at N600m monthly during Kayode Fayemi’s administration before the governor (Fayose) increased rates and taxes paid by Ekiti people, including introducing fresh ones.
“Even though we don’t know IGR figures, we wonder how a governor that rakes in N7.9b in a month through Paris Club N4.7b, Budget Support Facility of N1.3 and N1.9b in statutory allocation could be so callous to declare that the money he has won’t be able to pay one month salary at the time his counterparts in the neighbouring states are promising their workers to pay three months salaries with the current Paris Club refund.
“We wonder why a governor that is daily sacking workers while not employing fresh hands in the civil service would be so callous and mindless in his declaration that N7.9b, excluding the unknown IGR, will not be enough to pay one monthly salary.
“We know for a fact that so far, all bailouts and budget support facility cash that Fayose has taken were diverted to the flyover and new Oja Oba Market projects awarded to his Ibadan friends for selfish purposes, but like we warned last time, APC will play its role as a responsible opposition party to resist fraud and oppression in the interest of Ekiti people.
“It is on this note that as Governor Fayose is busy in his selfish and wicked manipulation of the people to short-change the state, we hereby reinstate our resolve to resort to the courts and street protests, which are lawful means of rejecting fraudulent and oppressive conducts of leaders, to ensure that Ekiti people get their share of the state’s wealth.”
He urged workers not to be deceived by Fayose’s rhetoric, saying his current moves to brainwash them in stakeholders’ meetings was his usual, deliberate ploy to sustain his “selfishness and greed while 2.7m Ekiti people suffered”.
