Fayose

THE Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC and Governor Ayodele Fayose yesterday disagreed over the alleged award of N720 million as payment arrears of the governor’s unfinished first term.

While the party described the governor’s alleged conduct as selfish and callous “for a governor who calls himself a friend of the masses”, Governor Fayose faulted APC’s allegation, saying the party has promoted falsehood to the level of a trade.

The Ekiti APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Taiwo Olatubosun, in a statement maintained that the governor had not paid workers and pensioners since September 2014.

The party said Fayose’s claim that he was friend of workers and poor masses was untenable.

Olatubosun described as shameful and heartless the governor’s refusal to pay statutory pensions benefit to Ekiti elders, which is not more than N5,000 each for many of them, who have meritoriously served the state.

He also berated the Fayose administration for terminating the social security scheme  initiated by the former governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, noting that “many of the pensioners who have no children to take care of them have started dying.”

The party’s spokesperson said “though he admitted he is owing only May salary as if he has any excuse to owe Ekiti workers for one day, as we write, over 10,000 Ekiti workers are yet to receive April salary. This is because not all workers he claimed to have paid have actually received their salaries.”

He, however, argued that “what he (Fayose) has been doing is to pay 10 out of 300 workers in a ministry and then goes to town with his propagandists that he has fully paid.”

He said “only last week, he electronically paid N13m into the accounts of each of the 16 local governments and collected the cash back from the council chairmen for purported joint projects like he did in his fraudulent poultry project in 2004.

“We are asking Fayose once again what he is doing with all the monies he saved from the empowerment programmes he cancelled. We also want to know where election contract deductions of N650 million monthly are going. Who are the beneficiaries? Are they more important than Ekiti workers?”

Continuing, he wondered “who are actually his friends among the masses in all these after displacing market women from their stalls and taking Ekiti youths from Fayemi’s empowerment programmes?”

On the detection of 1,000 ghost workers following the latest staff auditing, Olatubosun said it “was a fraud”.

He also argued that the staff audit was a “ploy to sack workers whose termination of appointment letters were being compiled for mass sack “and we wonder when ghosts started receiving letters.”

Ekiti APC has turned falsehood to a trade – Fayose

In his reaction, the governor accused the APCof  turning falsehood to a trade.

Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi said “from all indications, the APC in Ekiti State has promoted falsehood to the level of a trade, and we pity the party and its lying leaders.”

Adelusi explained that “Governor Fayose left office on October 16, 2006, eight months to the end of his tenure and Ekiti State had three governors within that period. Does it then make any sense that the same Fayose would come back eight years after to approve payment already made to three governors after him for himself?”

Speaking further, he said “let’s even assume that the eight months salary is to be paid, is the monthly salary of a governor more than N1m? How then does N1m per month equal N720m in eight months?”

Accusing the party of promoting falsehood, he said “Severance Allowance is 300 percent of annual basic salary and the basic salary of a governor is not more than N2m. So can N2m in three places be equal to N720m?.”

Vanguard