Governor Ayodele Fayose has been accused of fraud by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti state.The state’s chapter of the APC, condemned Fayose for allegedly diverting the recent bailout of N8.8 billion meant for the payment of backlog of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ allowances in Ekiti. According to The Vanguard, the party also took a swipe at labour leaders in the state over alleged connivance with the governor in his misapplication of the state’s funds as workers suffer unpaid salaries and allowances, while union leaders looked the other way in “an unholy romance with the governor for personal gains.” At the weekend, media reports said that the Federal Government was in possession of information that Fayose had allegedly diverted the fresh bailout to other purposes outside that for which it was approved. In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party described Fayose as “callous” for his refusal to use the money to pay workers’ salaries, pensions and severance allowances like his counterparts in other states that benefited from the same fresh bailout.
In his reaction to the allegation, Governor Fayose, said the state only got N8.8 billion, out of which the state government was only entitled to N5.3 billion, with the remaining N2.7 billion belonging to the local governments. He added: ”Out of the money, the state paid two months salaries in December, which amounted to N5 billion when added to the allocation to the state. ”The remaining N2.7 billion was reserved for the completion of the ongoing flyover and Oja Oba projects in Ado Ekiti. So, there was no case of diversion or embezzlement in this matter.” The APC regretted that while labour leaders in other states were always rooting for workers to enjoy their legitimate benefits, labour leaders in Ekiti have always been in an unholy alliance with the governor for their own personal benefits.
The party had earlier called on Fayose to stop playing pranks to avoid the scrutiny of the Senate on the disbursement of the bailout cash approved to the state by the federal government to pay backlog of salaries, pensions and other entitlements to former political office holders. The Ekiti state government had rejected plans by the Senate to probe how bailout funds granted the state to settle salary arrears by the federal government were spent. The government citing sections of the constitution said Nigeria’s federal system does not give the Senate the constitutional power to exercise oversight over finances of the states.