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Monday, October 20, 2014

Fayose's Allegations Are Mischievous - Fayemi

The former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has denied allegations of financial recklessness levelled against him by his successor in office, Ayo Fayose, advising the new helmsman to "stop this comedy of errors and face substance".


In a press statement made available to National Mirror, Fayemi had said that "Governor Fayose had in his inaugural speech put the state's debt profile at N57billion. A day earlier, he had put the figure at N89 billion during a television interview. This is in addition to the various unprintable words he used to describe the immediate past administration in the state, all in an attempt to paint a dismally poor state of finance for the state".


The former governor said that although his erstwhile Commissioner for Information, Mr Tayo Ekundayo, has responded to the "puerile allegations and orchestrated lies from Fayose", it has become imperative to provide additional details to that earlier reaction.


Fayemi added that the general public could be misled by the fraudulent claims and deliberate distortions of facts and figures in an attempt to invent excuses for imminent poor performance in office.


He said: "For the avoidance of doubt, the indebtedness of the state as at October 15, is N36.3 billion. Of this amount, N7.83 billion represents foreign loans incurred by previous government since the days of the old Ondo State.


"The remaining N28.485 billion represents internal loan, including inherited loans from previous government and outstanding balance (debt) of the bond taken at the Capital Market.


"In spite of this, the Federal Government is owing the state N17.71 billion, including N10.839 billion, being amount due from construction of federal roads; N4.012 billion, being refund on Paris Club and N2.858 billion being amount due on ecological projects. If the Federal Government would graciously effect part of this payment, the debt profile of the state would have been greatly reduced."


Fayemi described Fayose's action of making pronouncement on the state's finances and other matters without first going through the handing over note, which contains explicit details of government transactions and financial situation, as mischievous and irresponsible.


He added: "While Fayose alleged that the state account was in red, the state bank balances as at October 15 stood at N1.93 billion, comprising N1.46 billion in the state account and N466.93 million in local government account. Also the Bond Sinking Fund Account balance as at September 30 stood at N3.019 billion.


"Nothing could be farther from the truth than Fayose's allegation that none of the MDAs' accounts had up to N1million. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture's account is in the excess of N90 million, while the MDG account has close to N1 billion."


The statement added that no responsible leader in Nigeria today will not acknowledge the poor state of the country's economy, making it difficult for the Federal Government to meet its obligations to the federating states, saying that In the last two years, states had on many occasions left the monthly FAAC meetings empty handed, like they did last week.


Averring that federal allocation to Ekiti State has since the beginning of the year dropped by N480 million monthly, Fayemi said this has placed huge strain on government finances, adding that government has had to resort to bank facilities in order to augment the now insufficient allocation and pay workers salaries as well as meet other obligations.


He added that out of the N25 billion bond his government obtained from the Capital Market, N14 billion had been repaid through the laid down repayment regime, adding that the outstanding balance of the bond forms part of the N28 billion debt profile according to the state's audited accounts published in some national newspapers last week.

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