The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has challenged Governor Ayodele Fayose to a public debate on how the two of them ran Ekiti finances in office.
Fayemi said the 800-page handover note he personally gave to Fayose when he assumed office contained how the finances he received while in office were managed.
The immediate past Minister of Mines and Steel Development spoke at a press briefing on Sunday after the inauguration of the state campaign council.
“I challenge Fayose to meet me in a debate and let us discuss what we did with the resources that we held in trust for Ekiti, that way we will know who is a better manager of Ekiti resources or who is a prodigal son,” he said
Fayemi stated this while responding to an allegation by the Ekiti State Peoples Democratic Party’s Chairman, Gboyega Oguntuase, that the former governor mismanaged N165bn allocation apart from other grants as governor between 2010 and 2014.
Oguntuase had in a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday wondered why Fayemi still took N25bn bond and N35bn commercial loans with nothing to show for the funds.
“In 2011, Fayemi got N40.5bn as monthly statutory allocations. In 2012, he got N39.8bn. In 2013, he got N44.3bn and in 2014, he got N40.1bn. Whereas, the Fayose administration got N28.2bn in 2015, N18.8bn in 2016 and N25.6bn in 2017.
“Apart from the above monthly allocations, Fayemi still got regular funds from the Excess Crude Oil Account, and IGR among others. Despite what Fayemi got, he still borrowed N25bn from the capital market and took N31bn commercial loans. The question is: What did he do with the money? Nothing.
“The N25bn bond and commercial loans, through which he mortgaged the finances of our dear state for 20 years, were spent on nothing. He proposed an event centre, it was never completed. He said he would build a new Governor’s Office, he only scraped a parcel of land near the House of Assembly Complex and did nothing. His new Ojaba Market, for which he erected a billboard at the entrance of the palace of Ewi, never saw the light of the day,” Oguntuase said.
But responding, Fayemi said, “The handover note contained both financial and administrative details of what we did in four years.
“I urge the PDP and others who wish to find out to visit every single community in Ekiti State. They would find what I did with Ekiti money. There is no community in Ekiti today that you can visit, even the hamlets, that you would not find the footprints of Fayemi.
“In every community, you would find schools and hospitals and community roads and markets that we built; you would find civic centres that we built. They are in all villages and towns in Ekiti. No fewer than 100 people benefited from the social security scheme that we provided. There are communities that received on the average N10m for social security scheme on regular basis.
“You will find those that we employed into the youth volunteer, Peace Corps, the teaching profession and many others.”
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