Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose
• Fayose will account for borrowed funds, says APC
The Ekiti State government has faulted a report attributed to the Debt Management Office (DMO) that Governor Ayodele Fayose has borrowed N56 billion since he assumed office, and has applied for a fresh N25 billion loan.
In a statement yesterday, Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “The only fresh loans taken by the administration of Fayose were the N10 billion grant from the Excess Crude Account which was released to all states for capital projects, N2.8 billion from Wema Bank to pay State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) counterpart fund out of which N1 billion has been accessed, and N600 million for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) counterpart fund, which has been repaid.”
Olayinka said the report was allegedly orchestrated from the media office of a former governor “who is obviously struggling albeit unsuccessfully to change the narrative from the debt into which he plunged Ekiti State.“We are aware of how hard his media handlers tried to get the false report published in major newspapers, claiming that they had a classified document from the DMO.”
According to the governor’s aide, there is no recent bulletin from the DMO website concerning debt owed by any state as claimed in the report.Olayinka defended his boss: “As at the time Governor Fayose assumed office, some of the loans on the debt profile of Ekiti State were; bond from capital market (N26.7 billion), loan for development projects obtained from
Ecobank using Fountain Holdings (N5 billion), loan for recapitalization obtained from Wema Bank (N1 billion), commercial agric credit scheme from First Bank (N420.8 million), loan for legacy facility obtained from Ecobank (N408.2million), loan for development projects obtained from Skye Bank (N7.5billion), vehicle lease obtained from Ecobank (N146.6billion), laptop procurement (N375million) among others.
“It is on record that Ekiti State government was indebted to the tune of N86, 013,689,097 as at October 16, 2014 when Fayose took over. The debts are broken down as follows: bank loans- N15, 831,613,425.62; bond-N26, 749,796,784.75; outstanding warrants- N15, 522,552,900.76; outstanding to road contractors- N21, 286,126,749;outstanding remittances to FG- N709, 883,656.75; outstanding remittances (state govt)- N592, 995,374.89; and state public servants outstanding emoluments- N5, 137,888,224.37.”
Before the state government faulted the DMO’s report yesterday, the Ekiti branch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had said Fayose would account for every kobo he borrowed.Publicity Secretary of the party, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement that the latest debts figures confirmed its position that Fayose was borrowing for elephant projects awarded to his cronies’ companies for personal benefit.funds for personal benefit.
“For a long time, he kept deceiving Ekiti people that he had not borrowed one kobo since assumption of office, blaming the debt profile on former governor, Kayode Fayemi.“This is the same way he denied taking N2billion ecological funds for a very long time until APC approached the office in Abuja to confirm the status of Ekiti State’s entitlement and three days after he finally confessed taking the money.” APC said.
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