Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose
The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has said Governor Ayodele Fayose is destroying himself by abandoning the legacy projects of former Governor Kayode Fayemi.
The party said Fayemi’s projects presented the best opportunities for the state to grow, adding that Fayose had been hiding under non-existent debts to deny Ekiti people needed development.
It also dismissed Fayose as a “devious master of blackmail,” saying his betrayer tag on Fayemi was to celebrate a non-existent feud in his relationship with the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Fayose had said Fayemi had no excuses for leaving behind huge debt because of white elephant projects, bad governance and corruption.
He was reacting to Fayemi’s interview in some newspapers in which he said “his legacy was being destroyed.”
The governor said no responsible government would sustain a legacy of over N86 billion debt that was incurred on projects with no direct bearing on the welfare of the people.
The governor said it was shameful that Fayemi, who left two months’ salary and four months cooperative and unions deductions from workers salary, as well as pensions and gratuities unpaid, could be talking about his legacies being destroyed.
But the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement on Sunday said Fayemi completed all his predecessor’s (Segun Oni) projects, including the new Deputy Governor’s office, Oba Adejugbe Hospital Complex, House of Assembly Complex, as well as Osun-Iloro, Isan-Ilemeso and Ado-Ifaki roads among others.
He added that 10 months after inauguration, Fayose could not point to any project he had initiated except conducting road shows, including buying pepper and tomatoes in open markets, to pose as a friend of the poor even when all he had done so far tended towards taking sufferings to the doorsteps of Ekiti people.
“Fayose claimed that Ekiti owed N86 billion, when in reality the debt restructuring as released by the Debt Management Office and published in Thisday of Friday, August 21, 2015, confirmed Ekiti debt as N18.8 billion after conversion to long-term bond.
“Ekiti people should now ask Fayose where he got the N86b figure he has been bandying around that does not allow him implement development projects, including payments of gratuities and pensions for several months while also refusing to pay last year September salaries and five months salaries to traditional rulers after collecting allocations for the payments,” he said.
Olatunbosun also challenged Fayose to probe Fayemi who, according to him, has made himself available in the last 10 months if he is sure of his allegations.
“Government is a continuum. Fayemi met billions of Naira debts on assumption of office, but this did not deter him from executing many projects, including life-lifting and empowerment projects as well as enduring physical infrastructure, such as renovation of schools and hospitals, new Government House, the pavilion, the civic centre incorporating e-library, women development centre, conference centre and museum, construction of modern markets across the state amongst others.
“This also did not stop him from increasing workers salaries three times, a feat which Fayose never matched not even once,” Olatunbosun explained.
Olatubosun stated that Fayose had cancelled social security scheme for the elderly people and other youths empowerment programme in the state.
He added that the merger of three universities in a poor Ekiti State had enabled the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, to be well funded with highest ever accreditation of courses under the Fayemi administration.
“It also enabled the institution to access funds, which was not possible before the merger while the academic standard, ranking and structures in the university improved tremendously during Fayemi’s period, even as the former governor was the first to construct a two-kilometer road and N400 million capital grant to the university since inception.
“The new College of Medicine, which Fayose had earlier turned to a secondary school in his town during his first tenure, was in the last stage of accreditation before Fayemi left office,” Olatunbosun said.
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