Media Aide to Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka has told the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to use the over N30 billion his government already received from the federal government as refund on federal roads construction, arrears of budget support and Paris Club refund, to pay workers’ salary instead of jumping up and down, “lying against his predecessor”.
Olayinka, who was reacting to Fayemi’s claim that the government of Fayose received over N18 billion as Paris Club Refund but squandered it, said instead of his weak attempt at deceiving the people as usual, the Governor should rather explain to Ekiti people, especially the workers why he prompted the federal government to withhold N2.1 billion arrears of Budget Support and N14.1 billion Paris Club refund, which was approved for payment to the state in June this year.
While exonerating Fayose’s administration from the four months salaries owed state government workers before the expiration of his tenure, Olayinka said; “it was on the basis of the N2.1 billion arrears of Budget Support and N14.1 billion Paris Club refund already approved for payment in June that Fayose promised to clear the salary arrears. But due to his bitter politics, Fayemi blocked the payment and more than one month after receiving the payment, he is still following his usual path of deceit instead of paying the workers.”
He challenged Fayemi to make records of disbursement of the Paris Club Refund received by the state public, saying there were conditions laid down by the federal governments before the fund was released and States were made to make reports of utilization of first tranche of the refund before the second tranche was released.
“Besides, the fund was meant for both the State and local governments and it is on record that Ekiti fell into the hardship of inability to pay salaries regularly as a result of debt incurred during Fayemi’s first tenure and the loans restructuring done at the instance of the federal government and the Federal Economic Council.
“If Fayemi had not plunged Ekiti into unnecessary debt, over N1 billion wouldn’t have been deducted monthly from the State’s federal allocation. And if the APC government had not crippled the country’s economy, allocation to Ekiti State wouldn’t have reduced to less than N1 billion at some point,” Olayinka said.
He described Fayemi as a double-mouthed personality who should not be accorded any honour by sane minds, saying; “The reality is that Fayemi is reputed for speaking from both sides of his mouth. In the past, he described Fayose as an honourable person whose word is always his bond and today, he goes about denigrating the same Fayose.”
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