The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Chief Gboyega Oguntuase, has said the Ekiti State Government has used N35.34bn to service the huge debts incurred by the Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s administration from 2010 to 2014.
He said the money deducted from statutory allocations from October 2014 accounted for why the state could not pay workers’ salaries.
This, according to him, means the state is servicing the debts with an average of N1.1bn monthly, adding that it also means about 40 per cent of the state’s allocation is deducted from the source monthly.
Oguntuase, who said this in a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, said documents from the Debts Management Office and the Federal Ministry of Finance, agencies in charge of the debts and statutory allocations, revealed that the debts were incurred under several headings.
He added that between October and December 2014, the state’s allocations had N1.71bn deducted to service the debts.
Oguntuase said, “In 2015, the sum of N7.85bn was deducted from our allocations. In 2016, it was N11.30bn; in 2017, it was N12.12bn and from January to May this year, the sum of N4.94bn has been deducted.
“While we have paid off the commercial agriculture credit scheme, we have yet to pay off others and some will run till 2036. The implications of this are many. If we had such a huge sum, we wouldn’t be owing workers’ salaries and more welfare programmes and projects would have been executed by the Ayodele Fayose administration.
“The debts are under these headings: Contractual obligations, fertiliser, foreign loans, bond, commercial agriculture credit scheme, water project, restructuring of bank loans, and excess crude loan, among others. For instance, under contractual obligations are the vehicles and buses they purchased for traditional rulers and various groups that they did not pay a kobo for before leaving office.
“We all know the N25bn they borrowed from the Capital Market to finance some projects, but where are the projects? They never built any Governor’s Office. They did not build a new Oja-Oba Market; they did not complete their event centre. Even the state pavilion was not fully completed,” he said.
Oguntuase urged the people of the state to reject Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress in the coming governorship election and vote Prof Kolapo Olusola of the PDP.
But responding, the Director of Media and Publicity, Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Wole Olujobi, said, “Again, we admit that Fayemi borrowed N25bn to be defrayed within seven years and records are there in the Debts Management Office that Fayemi paid back N14.5b of the debts, leaving the balance of N10.5b before he left office on October 16, 2014.
“All the projects that benefitted from the bond are verifiable. They are the roads constructed across the state, schools and hospitals’ rehabilitation, world standard Ikogosi Resort that has again been looted, Ire Burnt Bricks Company, Igbemo Asphalt Plant, water projects, new Government House, pavilion and civic centre that Fayose has abandoned, among several others.
“If the official debt figures were as stated above, how did they come about N35.34b to service the debt of N10.5b?
“It is regrettable that after Fayose misapplied the state’s funds to satisfy himself, he is now looking for a scapegoat in the election period to fraudulently shift the blame on innocent Fayemi for undeserved political capital.”
Oluwole accused Fayose of taking N2bn CBN loan for small-scale businesses and another N2bn ecological fund cash without informing the people.”
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