BY Taiwo Adebulu
Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti, says the debt owed by the state is not up to N170bn as claimed by Kayode Fayemi, incumbent governor.
In a statement on Wednesday, Lere Olayinka, Fayose’s spokesperson, described the statement as false and “a way of preparing grounds for his impending failure just as he did when he assumed office in 2010″.
During his inauguration on Tuesday, Fayemi said independently verifiable preliminary findings indicate that the state was plunged into N170bn debt under Fayose.
But Olayinka said the state’s debt is under N60bn and it was either directly incurred during Fayemi’s first tenure or as a result of the loans restructuring done at the instance of the federal government.
He challenged Fayemi to name the banks being owed the N170 billion.
“He should not wait till 100 to cook up false stories of how much debt was left by the Fayose administration. He should rather tell Nigerians how it is possible for a state that is indebted to the tune of N170 billion to be making N1.1 billion repayment monthly,” he said.
“Instead of lying so blatantly to cover up his impending failure, Fayemi should publish the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ekiti State
Executive Council and House of Assembly approvals for the loans since no loan can be taken without these approvals.”
“In September this year, Fayemi claimed that Ekiti debt was N117 billion, one month after, he said the debt is N170 billion. So the debt increased from N117 billion to N170 billion in less than 30 days?
“The reality is that Fayemi is reputed for speaking from both sides of his mouth. In the past, when Fayose assisted him to be governor, he described him (Fayose) as an honourable person whose word is always his bond and today, he goes about denigrating the same Fayose.”
Olayinka urged Fayemi to face the task of governance and stop grandstanding.
“The federal government deliberately refused to release legitimate funds belonging to Ekiti State to the Fayose administration and for this reason, the arrears of salary could not be cleared as promised,” he said.
“We are aware that in a matter days, the withheld fund of over N30 billion is to be released to the state by the federal government as
refund on federal roads construction, arrears of Budget Support and Paris Club refund.
“Our plea is that Governor Fayemi should stop making excuses and use the over N30 billion to pay workers salary.”
Olayinka gave the breakdown of the debt as follows; commercial bank loan, N2,087,788,065.28; CBN grant for water project, N163,450,000; excess crude account backed loan, N9,545,173,472.78; bailout, N9,083,761,215.40; FGN bonds, N18,226,699,707.18; state bonds, N3,484,469,345.51 and budget Support, N16,869,000,000.
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