The Ekiti State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has taken a swipe at the state Governor, Ayodele Fayose for opposing the Single Treasury Account, TSA, policy of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
Expressing outrage at Fayose’s conduct as the only governor opposed to the transparency policy of the Federal Government, the state chapter of the party said the governor’s action was a deliberate attempt to conceal fraud.
According to a statement by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, Fayose’s opposition to the TSA policy is to defraud the state.
Olatunbosun said, “TSA is aimed at ensuring that all government earnings are paid into a single account to ensure accountability and check fraud unlike in the past where several government accounts were scattered in many banks to perpetrate frauds.
“For a governor who describes himself as a friend of the poor to oppose a policy that will make the same poor people enjoy the benefits of transparent governance is the height of irresponsibility and a confirmation of allegations of fraud against the governor in his handling of financial issues.
“We can now see the reason why the governor has opened several channels of revenue collections to be paid into several phoney accounts that revenue collection officers are describing as opaque,” Olatunbosun explained.
“We all know that Governor Fayose’s second coming to the Ekiti State Government House is for nothing but to feather his bottomless pocket, kill the dream of a better Ekiti State and destroy the dignity and legacies of Ekiti fore-fathers as we have seen him do in his several cloudy conducts in governance.
“As we speak, Fayose’s administration keeps a secret account not known to the state treasury into which taxes and fines he has mindlessly imposed on Ekiti people are paid, notably fines on traffic offences and suffocating taxes he imposed on poor traders that he deceived with abundance of life during campaigns.
“After sacking thousands of workers in youth empowerment scheme and permanent secretaries; after cutting monarchs’ and workers’ allowances and running grants and after stopping funding the social security scheme for the elderly and security agencies but increased his personal monthly security vote from N100m to N250, Fayose hired less than 200 political appointees as against over 800 appointees by Governor Kayode Fayemi, yet he tells Ekiti people that he pays the same N2.6 billion that Fayemi paid as salaries and allowances to workers monthly.”
Allegeding that Fayose was out to perpetrate fraud, Olatunbosun stated that there was no way the governor could have been paying the same bill his predecessor paid as monthly wages to workers.
“Fayose has no explanation to make to Ekiti people on how he spent N22b refund on federal road projects, the N2b ecological fund, several billions of naira statutory allocations to the state and LGAS and N9.1 bailout cash, among others.
“Fayose has not said anything about the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, which he has embarked upon with an aggressive drive thereby bringing untold hardship on the citizens. What of the school fees he introduced in primary and secondary schools, including high fees in tertiary institutions,” Olatunbosun said.
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