Fayose taking oath of office at his inauguration as Governor of Ekiti stateMr. Ayodele Fayose took over as governor of Ekiti state today, describing his immediate predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi as a pretender and interloper who was foisted on the people of the state, even as he accused him of accumulating a total sum of N49 Billion as debt for him to contend with.
“My heart bleeds today as I report to you, that our state had been plunged into a heavy debt dungeon of over forty nine billion naira by our own brothers and sisters.”
Fayose who spoke after he has been sworn-in in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, said that with the immediate past governor in charge.”the ship of state drifted with neither a compass nor a navigator.”
He said that he left over 10 billion naira (in liquid cash and securities) in the state in October 2006 alongside all the monumental infrastructural and human developments that were emplaced
during his first coming, adding: “this huge sum was depleted by the quasi-military emergency government that was foisted on our people by a power hungry cabal which masterminded and supervised my ouster. All the governments that forced themselves on the good people of Ekiti since I left office in 2006, including the out-going cloned democrats, served every interest other than that of the ordinary Ekiti people.”
He gave a run-down of how the state had been plunged into a heavy debt dungeon as follows:
(i) Bond (Capital market) and Agric Loan – N21.2b
ii) Other Bank Loans – N15.5b
(iii) Outstanding, Salary (two months) – N3.2b
iv) Unremitted monthly deductions from salary (4 months) – N2.4b
(v) Unpaid Subventions to Parastatals and Tertiary Institutions – N700m
2014 Leave Bonus – N400m
Unpaid Pensions and Gratuities -N3.2b
Unremitted withholding taxes and other deductions -N850m
Indebtedness to Contractors – NIO.Ob
Total = N57.45P.
He also gave the position of monthly accruable incomes (net) to Ekiti State as follows:
(I) Statutory Allocation from the FG – 2.3b
Value Added Tax (VAT) – 650m
Internally Generated Revenue – 350m
3.300b
According to Fayose, the state has been committed financially up and until year 2020, even beyond his own administration.
“The proportionate benefits of this huge debt profile to our people remain to be seen or felt by the ordinary man and woman in our state.
“My intention here is not to join issues with the immediate past administration which was substantially responsible for this debt burden. However, I consider it expedient that this parlous position of our finances be made known to members of the public who gave us the mandate to be here. The situation is a challenge that requires our collective effort and creative devices to resolve. My consolation and hope is in our astute human resource capacity and creativity to pull our state out of the palpable quagmire. I therefore appeal to our people to show understanding at this period and be wary of their distractive tendencies, unfounded rumours and outright propaganda of falsehood, as the new government finds appropriate solutions to this immediate challenge.”
The governor regretted that Ekiti people were made to swim against the tides in the last eight years and that the popular will of the majority of the people was supplanted with the selfish interests of a powerful few.
“We were seized in the jugular by power mongering demagogues who foisted on us an emergency rule at first. They thereafter manipulated hallowed democratic institutions and produced
“Our state witnessed many tragedies, including destruction of human lives and properties. There were waste and unproductive expenditure of huge sums of money, considerable slowing down of progress, and incalculable sufferings and deprivations.
“There was smear and malicious campaign of calumny against the innocent and orchestrated celebration of the desperate. They could however fool all of the people some of the time, but could not sustain their foolery for long. Ekiti people have seen beyond their veil of fraud and deception and rejected them all.”
[myad]
