The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has advised Governor Ayodele Fayose to apply the Paris Club refund of N9.5b released to the state according to the conditions attached to the fund, warning that failure to spend the money to benefit Ekiti people will force the party to approach the courts and mobilise the people on the streets to protest any misapplication of the cash.
The party had yesterday faulted Fayose’s claim that the state’s share of the money was N4b after debts and local local government deductions, explaining that in the Paris Club refund protocol, the cash released to the state was neither subject to debts nor local government deductions but a special fund to pay salary.
It added that it was the state government that borrowed money from Paris Club and not local governments and so the Paris cash belonged exclusively to the state government, explaining further that it was only statutory federal allocations that are subject to debts deduction.
In another statement on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti, Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the party was aware of a fresh move by the governor to launch a fresh wave of brainwashing sessions among workers and traditional rulers “to distort facts on the Paris Club cash in order to short-change Ekiti people again”.
He said: “We are aware that after our great party APC yesterday educated Ekiti people and workers in particular about the details and truth about the N9.5b Paris Club refund to Ekiti State, Governor Fayose has begun a fresh and more aggressive propaganda to have his way to selfishly misapply the money.
“We are aware that Fayose has, as usual, compiled fake documents with intent to deceive traditional rulers and his compromised foot soldiers in the Labour movement, who he has been using to brainwash the workers to accept their fate to hunger and penury, to create the impression that he is transparent in the management of Ekiti funds.
“Governor Fayose had applied this fraudulent method successfully for selfish reasons in the past, but this time, it is going to be a different ball-game to show Fayose that he is not the only person who must enjoy a good life among 2.6 million Ekiti people.
“Enough of Fayose’s characterisation of Ekiti people as stupid and foolish people who are always swayed by deceits and lose their sense of reasoning to frivolities, such as eating pounded yam with them on the streets and helping them to sell in the markets or drinking local gins with them at joints, as he derides them among his Ibadan friends.
“APC will let Fayose know that he is not the wisest man in Ekiti who thinks he can always callously exploit the so-called stupidity of Ekiti people always to sentence them to everlasting poverty.”
Warning against “illegal and fraudulent contract deals”, Olatunbosun said the party was aware of fraudulent road contract deals that will impoverish Ekiti people while Fayose and his friends from other states reap from the sufferings of Ekiti people.
“During his campaign, he said only local contractors would be engaged in government’s contracts to discourage capital flight and ensure that Ekiti wealth circulates among the indigenes, but today, besides petty jobs worth less than N1m given to Ekiti indigenes who are his cronies, all multi-billions and multi-millions jobs go to Fayose’s friends from other states, notably Oyo State.
“We are aware of a grand plot by Fayose to divert more than half of the Paris Club refund of N9.5b to the flyover and new market projects being executed by companies belonging to his friends and in which the governor allegedly has interest and we challenge Ekiti people to find out who owns the only company handling roads construction so far in the state.
“The height of this callousness is the impoverishment of even his commissioners, advisers and House of Assembly members, who are always broke, thus cannot make their impacts felt in their constituencies.
“Fayose has pushed Ekiti people to the wall in his callous disposition as if he is the only person that must enjoy good life among 2.6 million of Ekiti people.
“As a responsible opposition party, we will be on the side of the people and will never allow this fraud, selfishness, greed and wickedness to continue to the advantage of one man while Ekiti people suffer.
“It is in the light of this that we promise Ekiti people that as a responsible opposition party, we are set for the court and prepared to mobilise the entire populace on the streets against tyranny, wickedness and greed being unleashed by Fayose’s administration to take Ekiti State to the backwaters of development.”
