Ekiti State Governor-elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said he is not on a vendetta mission on his decision to probe how the state finances were managed when he takes office on October 16.
Fayemi said there is need to know why the state government still owed several arrears of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ benefits after receiving three tranches of bailout funds, Paris Club refunds, Budget Support Funds and secrecy with which the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is shrouded in the last four years.
The governor-elect also warned against illegal appointments at Ekiti State University (EKSU) saying “the ongoing staff upgrade at the university to create vacancies for employment is a subtle means to ensure that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s political agents occupy strategic positions they may not have competences to hold.”
Fayemi was replying to an allegation by the administration of Governor Ayo Fayose that his plan to probe the management of the state finances, assets and liabilities by outgoing government was a mission of vengeance and vendetta.
The governor-elect also urged Fayose and his media handlers to accept defeat in good faith after Ekiti people had realized that they had been dealing with a deceitful governor who can no longer fool them.
In a statement on Saturday by the Director of Media in the Media in the Office of the Governor-elect, Mr. Wole Olujobi, also urged Fayose to be prepared to prepare for life outside office and answer to various alleged criminal cases hanging on his neck.
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Fayemi said: “We are not surprised that it is now that Fayose is saying that he is ready to open the state’s books for probe and we wonder why he had refused to let Ekiti people know the state’s IGR figures in about four years while nobody knew how he spent budget support facility, Paris Club refunds and bailout cash.
“Rather than continue to brag shamelessly and issue tissues of lies as press releases as he has been doing in the last four years, Fayose should bury his head in shame for misusing the opportunity of redeeming his battered image.
“Fayose is one of the luckiest men in history, who has a second chance to redeem himself but he blew it because of greed, arrogance and covetousness.
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“We are also surprised that a beneficiary of 2014 poll fraud through criminal manipulation of Federal resources is the one now describing the free and fair election that produced Fayemi as flawed after Ekiti people went to poll to take their destiny in their hands by voting for Fayemi who can be trusted with power and resources of the state unlike Fayose who secretly collected N117b loans but refused to pay workers their salaries and pensioners’ entitlements.
“We advise Fayose to brace up for life after government, especially to render accounts of his stewardship to Ekiti people in the last four years and must also be prepared to defend himself over a plethora of criminal cases hanging on his neck.”
He advised Fayose to accept defeat and be prepared to face the law over his alleged infractions against the law while he was governor instead of launching blackmail against the plan to probe him.
Fayemi cautioned EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof Samuel Oye Bandele, against pandering to the preferences of the governor in the running of the university.
He added: “We are aware of the plot to use staff upgrade to create hundreds of vacancies for Fayose’s agents for employment in the face of the dwindling economic fortunes of the university that cannot pay staff salary regularly and where infrastructure has decayed while subvention and capital grants have not been paid for more than a year.
“We know that the strategy is to create more problems for the incoming administration, more so that the decision to employ more hands was taken after the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost the last governorship election to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The manner of the ill-motivated appointments lacks merit, coming at the eclipse of Fayose’s administration after failing to recruit staff in the last three years during which time staff were not motivated and infrastructure left to rot away.”
