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Tag: Fayose

  • PDP man joins Ekiti APC, slams Fayose

    PDP man joins Ekiti APC, slams Fayose

    The ranks of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has swelled, with a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Think Tank, Femi Aduloju, dumping the ruling party.

    Aduloju, Special Assistant on Media to the former state PDP Chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, lamented the alleged anti-people policies of the Ayo Fayose administration, which he said had rendered the umbrella party unpopular.

    The journalist-turned politician joined the APC at Ado-Ekiti Ward 3 in Idemo, Odo-Ado  at the weekend.

    Aduloju, who worked with Television Continental (TVC) before his foray into politics, described the APC as a party that is passionate to restore Nigeria to the path of glory.

    Aduloju, who was received by party leaders led by the APC Chairman in Ado-Ekiti Local Government Area, Mike Akinleye, revealed that one of the roads inaugurated by Fayose last Friday is an uncompleted project.

    Aduloju lamented how the governor had allegedly imposed burdensome taxes on businesses, particularly on pupils in public and private schools.

    He also accused him of awarding contracts to his associates, cronies and relations.

    Aduloju said: “That is why APC must unite to send PDP packing in 2018. We can’t afford to be in bondage after 2018.

    “Ekiti  voted for Fayose to develop the state and rather than doing that he decided  to place high premium on abusing President Muhammadu Buhari and debasing our value as a people.”

  • 11 governors for inauguration of Fayose’s projects

    11 governors for inauguration of Fayose’s projects

    Eleven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors are due in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital today to witness the inauguration of projects executed by Governor Ayo Fayose.

    They are Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom); Serieke Dickson (Bayelsa); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); Ibrahim Dakwambo (Gombe); Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta); Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo); Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Ben Ayade (Cross River).

    Ishaku is also expected to hold a special thanksgiving to mark his Supreme Court victory in honour of Fayose who “predicted” his judicial triumph over his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, Mrs. Aisha Al-Hassan.

    The hint was dropped at a briefing yesterday jointly addressed by Commissioner for Information Lanre Ogunsuyi and Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary Idowu Adelusi.

    The projects for inauguration are the Women Development Centre named after the late deputy governor Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka; 6.2km De-Head-Adetiloye Road executed at N782,021,436;  the 800m dualised Awedele-Secretariat road, which gulped N488,199,974 and the Ewi’s Palace gallery on which the government said it spent N212.1million to complete.

    Ogunsuyi said the Funmilayo Adunni Olayinka Women Centre was constructed at ‘no cost” to the government but through donations from corporate organisations and admirers of the late deputy governor.

    Adelusi explained that Ishaku requested that the thanksgiving be held in Ekiti in appreciation of the support Fayose gave him during the trial.

    He denied the APC’s allegation that Fayose collected money from the Federal Government that former Governor Kayode Fayemi spent on federal roads.

    Civil servants are agitating for the payment of two months’ salaries of the three owed them.

    Their agitation followed moratorium granted to states by the Federal Government to enable indebted states off set salary arrears.

    The government is owing workers salary from January to date and leave bonus from 2014.

    Since the federal government announced the moratorium, some civil servants had been agitating, though silently, that the government should be able to pay them at least two months out of the arrears owed them.

    Ogunsuyi and Adelusi said the moratorium was only on the N9billion bail out collected from the Federal Government to pay salary arrears then which they said “was used judiciously”.

    The governor’s aides said the moratorium did not affect the alleged N70billion debt inherited from the Fayemi administration.

    The commissioner, who blamed the state’s current economic situation on the debt incurred by past administration, said the government would only discharge its responsibilities according to the funds available to it.

  • Fayose’s projects fraudulent, says APC

    Fayose’s projects fraudulent, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayo Fayose of presenting projects executed by the last administrations as new ones to deceive the people.

    The party said some projects the governor claimed to have executed with state funds were actually carried out by some corporate organisations.

    The Fayose administration has concluded arrangements to inaugurate some projects on Friday as the ceremony is expected to be witnessed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors.

    The APC in a statement yesterday by Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said: “We want to alert the six governors that what they are coming to do in Ekiti State is a celebration of fraud and not a celebration of a new lease of life for our people.

    “Awedele road is an expansion project that he had earlier listed for inauguration during his first year anniversary.

    “The governor removed the electricity poles purchased by former Governor Kayode Fayemi and kept in the Government House for rural electrification and repainted them to look like new poles for electricity projects in Awedele and Bank Road.

    “The newly constructed Funmi Olayinka Women Centre at Fajuyi is a N600million TETFUND project funded by a bank originally planned to be located at the Ekiti State University campus, but because Fayose wanted to con people with the project, he forced its relocation to Fajuyi and has been deceiving Ekiti people that he built that edifice.

    “The same is Ikere-Ekiti N400million road dualisation funded by another bank as its social responsibility project in Ekiti State, yet the governor has been deceiving the people that he built the road.

    “Unfortunately, it is this fraud that these six governors are coming to celebrate with Fayose and Ekiti people while in their states, fresh projects have been inaugurated.”

    The opposition party said all the projects listed for inauguration are not new, explaining that most of them are expanded projects for which Ekiti people would be made to pay for as new projects.

    Olatunbosun cited alleged fraudulent disbursement of the bailout cash of N9.6billion that the governor could not account for to the people.

    “The ICPC and NLC report, after investigating how the bailout cash was spent by the states,  found out that Ekiti State was owing one month salary (October 2015) when the bailout of N9,604,304,000.00 was paid to the state.

    “Ekiti State debts incorporating salaries and emoluments, including severance allowances to political office holders, totalled N3,000,266,146.64.

    “But without paying these salaries and emoluments, the governor declared that N9,213,816,252.55 was disbursed leaving the balance of N390,613,747.50.

    “What he disbursed N9,213,816,252.55 for, nobody knows; nobody knows where the purported balance of N390,613,747.50 is kept, yet the governor is owing workers four months salaries,” he explained.

    “Fayose must have deceived the ICPC with fake disbursement schedule.  We challenge Fayose to publish names of the beneficiaries of his purported N9.6 billion bailout fund.

    Olatunbosun urged the Federal Government to keep an eye on Fayose on his overhead bridge project, saying this became imperative because “the governor is notorious for shoddy construction jobs”.

  • Fayose violated education summit resolution, says Ajakaye

    Fayose violated education summit resolution, says Ajakaye

    The Catholic Diocese of Ekiti has said the imposition of taxes on pupils in private and public schools was not part of the resolutions of the Education Summit held last September.

    The Church accused Governor Ayo Fayose of arbitrarily imposing the levy on the pupils contrary to the decisions reached at the Summit.

    The Diocesan Bishop, Rev. Felix Ajakaye, in a statement yesterday reiterated the intent of the Mission to challenge the imposition of the levy on Catholic schools in court.

    The bishop’s latest position was in response to the government’s insistence on going ahead with the policy, claiming that at least seven Catholic schools had complied with the order.

    The government had imposed N1000/N500 education levy on pupils of both public and private schools per term.

    Last week, the diocese advised the government to exempt schools being run by the Catholic Church from the payment of or be prepared to face legal action.

    Ajakaye said:  “There was never any discussion, not to talk of decision, on education development levy on private and mission schools.

    “With the present stand of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti on the imposition of the Education Levy, the government may decide to close our schools. We have to go beyond threats and weigh our actions today as we plan for tomorrow. Posterity will judge.”

    He said the church’s intention to challenge the government in court was not a declaration of war, adding that the church would not also succumb to blackmail over the issue.

    Ajakaye, who described the tax as ‘’robbing Peter to pay Paul”, said it was wrong to collect money from private and mission schools to develop public schools.

    The cleric clarified that Ave Maria International College, Osun-Ekiti and Immaculate Nursery/Primary School, Ilupeju-Ekiti, two of the seven schools the government claimed to have complied with the payment of the fee, were not owned by the church.

    The bishop said: “Even if the pupils of the mission schools have paid, not just the seven, we would have still followed the path of justice and honour. We didn’t threaten anybody or the state on the matter.

    “We planned to go to court just to seek redress. Notably, Catholic Church does not threaten and cannot be threatened. It can never be intimidated and neither would it succumb to blackmail.

    “Here is a poser for the government, why can’t it impose the same education levy on public and private tertiary institutions?”

  • APC accuses Fayose of fuel diversion

    APC accuses Fayose of fuel diversion

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayo Fayose of alleged complicity in the fuel supply crisis in the state.

    In a statement yesterday by Publicity Secretary Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said it was in possession of “incontrovertible evidence” that the governor is allegedly contributing to the scarcity of fuel in the state to sabotage President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

    Olatunbosun claimed that available information confirmed that daily allocations of fuel to the state were allegedly being diverted to other states with the alleged connivance of some NUPENG officials.

    But Commissioner for Information Lanre Ogunsuyi absolved Fayose of blame, accusing the APC of “advertising ignorance”.

    Ogunsuyi said: “Governor Fayose is outside the country. How can you accuse him of diversion of fuel? What the APC is saying is not worthy of response because they must tell us how the governor did it.

    “The governor has been away for about three weeks now. The DPR is responsible for the downstream sector and the sector is highly deregulated. The APC people are highly uneducated.

    “There is fuel crisis all over the country. Is Governor Fayose responsible for scarcity of petrol, including their so-called diversion in other states?”

    But Olatunbosun said: “Records have revealed that 10 trailers of fuel for Ekiti State on Fayose’s request were diverted mostly to stations outside the state.

    “The Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Dupe Alade, had earlier written for same allocation but her letter was stepped down when Fayose used his office to request for the allocation of fuel to 10 filling stations, many of which do not exist in Ekiti State.

    “The governor’s letter was addressed to the Area Manager at Mosimi and was processed by the Ore office of NNPC.

    “The trailers were loaded last Wednesday and Thursday but the real fuel companies and vendors were prevented from loading until the 10 trailers demanded by the governor left the depot but were diverted to other stations outside Ekiti State.

    He listed the company names in the letter of the governor to include Amsek Filling Station opposite Omolayo along Ikere road, Ado-Ekiti, that is selling above official price.

    “Other stations not in existence in Ekiti State but which appeared in the governor’s letter is Royal Oil, which the letter falsely claimed to exist in Omuo-Ekiti.

    “Rova Oil, also on the governor’s letter,  no longer exists in Ekiti because it has since been sold and its name changed and it is now operating under NNPC. It is located in Ajilosun area of the state capital and selling above NNPC official price.

    “Other non-existent stations in Ekiti but which appeared in the governor’s letter and was allocated fuel is Bisi Jay located in Ile-Oluji in Ondo State.

    “The other company that received Ekiti State’s allocation is Ademur located in Osun State. This company has no station in Ekiti and it has no lifting right or permit in Ore, while Eyeowa Fuel that got allocation does not exist in Ekiti,” he explained.

    He alleged that Moson Global located in Ifon, Ondo State, also received Ekiti allocation at NNPC official price but selling above official price to the public.

    He challenged the governor to deny writing to the NNPC for fuel allocation.

    “There is need for the security agencies and the Minister for Petroleum to investigate the governor’s activities at the NNPC offices both in Ore and Mosimi and the roles of NUPENG officials in this wicked unleashing of pains on Ekiti people.”

     

  • Fayose: How not to be an opposition leader

    IN composing this piece, I am guided by the Yoruba saying that the best way you can gat a sadist to become a part of his community’s development efforts is to beg him. Considering the devious nature of his politics in recent times, there is hardly a better way to get the eccentric governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, to sheath his sword against the rest of the populace and join in the efforts to re-launch Nigeria on the path of progress.

    The call on him to see reason became even more imperative after a letter he wrote to the Chinese government on the back of President Muhammadu’s recent visit to China, asking the Asian country to rescind the far reaching agreements the two countries had towards the rehabilitation and development of Nigeria’s social infrastructure. Apart from granting Nigeria financial aids that run into billions of dollars, China also agreed on a deal to make the West African country the hub for the internationalization of Yuan, the Chinese official currency.

    Economic experts have taken turns to hail President Buhari’s visit to China as the most beneficial of all his foreign trips since he assumed the leadership of the country in May last year, saying that the deals he struck with China are capable of turning our fortune around in such sectors as power, solid minerals, agriculture, housing and rail transportation, giving tooth to our tag as the giant of Africa and returning our country to a place of pride in the comity of nations. Not so for Governor Fayose.

    As soon as the news of the milestone agreements broke, the Ekiti State governor reached for his pen and wrote a letter to China through its embassy in Nigeria, asking it not to grant Nigeria any financial aid because, according to him, “Nigerians, irrespective of their political and religious affiliations, are totally opposed to increment of the country’s debt burden, which is already being serviced with 25 per cent of the Federal Government’s annual budget.”.He alleged that Nigeria was seeking a loan to finance the deficit of its 2016 budget while some of the projects for which a loan was being sought were not captured in the said budget.

    What Fayose did not add in the letter was that he has been a major player in the events that culminated in the sea of debt Nigeria now finds itself in. The PDP government in which he was hyperactive was responsible for the squandering of trillions of naira from the nation’s exchequer. A former secretary of the PDP in Ekiti State, Dr. Temitope Aluko, recently released sordid details of how Fayose received a whopping sum of $37 million from former President Goodluck Jonathan to rig the election that ushered him in as governor. This is besides the billions of naira Fayose and other pro-Jonathan elements allegedly got from various government agencies with a view to railroading Jonathan into office for another term.

    Curiously, Fayose asked the Chinese government to single out his own state for investments and financial aid which he felt the country did not deserve. Of course, the responses from well-meaning Nigerians have been legion, quick and scathing. Some say he is patently subversive. Others with a bent of comics say it is comedy taken too far.

    Since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was swept away from power by the wind of change that blew across the country last year, Fayose has saddled himself with the task of acting as the voice of opposition to Buhari’s government. Regrettably, his has been a classical example of how not to be an opposition leader. While propaganda is a critical element of opposition in politics, it is an exercise requiring a lot of rational thinking. To be taken seriously by the observing public, an opposition leader must know when to condemn and when to commend. An opposition leader becomes a cynic when he condemns an obviously beneficial move like Buhari’s recent visit to China. It is either Fayose’s teacher in the concept of opposition is doing a poor job or Fayose himself is such a poor student of the subject that he can only comprehend the cynical aspect of it. In the end, he is nothing more than a querulous and fastidious masochist, ever eager to condemn and never willing to commend.

    Were Fayose not a politician ahead of his time, he would have long got the message from Buhari’s stoic disregard for his tantrums and adopt the option of keeping quiet. The President is shielded from the machinations of sworn detractors like Fayose by the massive goodwill he enjoys from the larger Nigerian public; the goodwill that Fayose and his co-travellers tried in vain to destroy in the build-up to the election that ushered Buhari in about a year ago by labelling him a religious fanatic, an impostor and a certificate forger.

    If their campaigns of calumny could do nothing to decimate Buhari’s reputation in those sensitive times, it is very unlikely to succeed now that he is firmly in charge as the nation’s number one citizen.

  • Group to Fayose: resign

    Group to Fayose: resign

    Interest group in Ekiti State, the Fountain Alliance, has called on Governor Ayo Fayose to resign over the revelation that the election which brought him to power was allegedly rigged in his favour.

    The Fountain Alliance in a statement yesterday by its Secretary, Olawande Temitope, also called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to prosecute all those indicted in the Ekitigate saga.

    The group said the revelation by the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, on the atrocities alleged committed “by the government in power” should not be swept under the carpet.

    It contended that the military has shown a good example by punishing its officers and men implicated in the saga, urging the AGF to ensure the arraignment of the civilians implicated in the saga.

    The statement reads: “We advise the governor to resign and allow the prosecution of members of his administration fingered in the alleged crimes rather than going about initiating political gimmick against the Federal Government or the President.”

  • Fayose: my critics are hypocrites

    Fayose: my critics are hypocrites

    Embattled Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has accused his critics of “political hypocrisy”, saying President Buhari’s non-signing of direct loan with the Chinese government has vindicated his position.

    In a statement yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka,  the governor lambasted All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, former Governor Segun Oni and eminent law teacher Prof Itse Sagay.

    He said: “Odigie-Oyegun, Oni and Sagay lack moral rights to complain even if President Muhammadu Buhari is called names because they never complained when former President Goodluck Jonathan was called unprintable names by APC stalwarts and leaders.

    “Where were the likes of Odigie-Oyegun, Oni, Sagay and others when APC promoted crude politics and anti-Nigeria posturing when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power?”

    He added: “It is on record that APC wrote to the United States not to sell arms to Nigeria, reported the country to the European Union, United Nations and went to the bizarre extent of reporting the then Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    “On one occasion, a certain APC stalwart insinuated that Jonathan’s visit to Chad was to plan further attacks on the North.

    “It is also on record that instead of lending his voice to the Federal Government’s efforts to dislodge Boko Haram insurgents, President Buhari opted to describe the clampdown on Boko Haram as injustice against the North.

    “He went on to accuse the government of killing and destroying houses of Boko Haram insurgents while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the government.

    “Even when Oni was Ekiti State Governor as a PDP member, Action Congress (AC) as APC was then, wrote against his administration’s move to obtain a N5 billion loan.

    “Isn’t it then funny that because he is now in APC, the same Oni is now against Governor Fayose doing the same thing done against him by the APC ?

    “Isn’t it also funny that it was right for APC stalwarts to have reported the Federal Government to ICC but wrong for Fayose to have written the Chinese government on the Federal Government’s plan to mortgage the future of Nigeria and its people?”

    The governor’s spokesperson said since the Federal Government claimed it has recovered and still recovering trillions of Naira allegedly looted from the treasury, there was no need to borrow money to finance the 2016 Budget.

    “With the $200 billion they claimed is coming from the United Arab Emirates, $700 million raw cash they said was found in Diezani Alison-Madueke’s house, N3 trillion said to have been saved from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and N4.5 trillion the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it will generate this year, what then is the rationale behind the Federal Government seeking any loan?”

     

  • ‘Aluko masterminded attempt to impeach Fayose’

    ‘Aluko masterminded attempt to impeach Fayose’

    Former factional Speaker of  the Ekiti State House of Assembly Dele Olugbemi has accused the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, of masterminding the attempts by the 19 former All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers to remove Governor Ayo Fayose.

    He insisted that Aluko was at a reconciliation meeting with Fayose in a Lagos hotel, which was facilitated by him (Olugbemi).

    Olugbemi, in an interview on Saturday on EKITI 91.5 FM, alleged that the ex-PDP secretary had been on the payroll of the APC for more than one year and was working to destabilise the PDP.

    The former factional Speaker, now a Commissioner in the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), claimed that Aluko took him to Lagos and Osun states during his tenure in the Assembly to lure him (Olugbemi) into an impeachment plot against Fayose.

    Olugbemi added a comical dimension to the interview when he challenged Aluko to present himself for “traditional swearing” to know who is telling the truth between the two of them.

    He said: ”When I was the Speaker, TKO (Aluko) was the PDP secretary. I have never seen a traitor like him in my life.

    “He was the one who initiated and facilitated an arrangement with the APC towards using the House to impeach Fayose. He took me to Osun and Lagos for the arrangement.

    “I refused to do this and that strained our relationship. But we resumed our relationship shortly after the end of my tenure as Speaker.

    “When I discovered that he was always scheming against the governor and conniving with enemies to impeach him after about one and half year into this government, I decided to call him and advise him.

    “I told him that in politics there cannot be permanent enemies but permanent interests. I told him joining another party would not help, that as for me, I prefer to stay in PDP.

    “I am so surprised that he could denounce and rubbish a peace meeting I brokered between him and the governor.

    “The CCTV camera has the details of all that we discussed with the governor inside the Eko Hotel.

    “Aluko remains our lost sheep. We will welcome him home anytime. He has worked for our party and deserves his reward but he has to stop this bad attitude of his and show genuine repentance. Fayose is the father of all of us and he has a large heart to accommodate all. “

  • Aluko: Fayose’s electoral victory a coup

    Aluko: Fayose’s electoral victory a coup

    The former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Dr. Tope Aluko, has described the governorship election victory secured by Governor Ayo Fayose as “a coup against the people”.

    He revealed that 11 PDP chieftains were caught with sensitive electoral materials by Department of State Services (DSS) operatives   in a hotel owned by Fayose’s Chief of Staff, Dipo Anisulowo, but were released three hours later.

    Speaking on a special interview programme on ADABA 88.9 FM, which was monitored by our reporter in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, Aluko said that was what made Fayose boast that he would defeat former Governor Kayode Fayemi in  the 16 local governments.

    In the interview his second on the radio station in three days, the PDP chieftain alleged that Fayose told former President Goodluck Jonathan at a PDP strategy meeting at the Aso Rock Villa that the only way Fayemi, who was believed to have performed well in office, could be removed was to use force.

    The erstwhile Ekiti PDP scribe said that was why “the might of the Commander-in-Chief” was deployed to intimidate the opposition on election day and give Fayose victory by all means.

    Aluko said: “The election that brought the governor  to power was like a coup. It was a coup against the people  and that is why he is behaving the way he is doing now.

    “At the strategy meeting held with former President Jonathan, we admitted that it will be difficult to remove Fayemi from power because of his performance.

    “Fayose told Jonathan that unless we use force and other foul means, there wouldn’t be a change of government in Ekiti and that was why Jonathan granted him the request.

    “That was why he allowed the then Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, former Minister of Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan to be with Fayose and ensure that victory was made possible at all cost.

    “Our game plan was to harass, arrest and detain principal opposition figures, including aggrieved PDP members, who participated in the governorship primary with Fayose. I am talking of people like (Caleb) Olubolade and others.

    “Our game plan was to move against them and take them out by arresting and detaining them.

    “Eleven of us were arrested in the hotel where we perfected the rigging.”

    The PDP chief accused the Fayose administration of sustaining propaganda against him.

    Aluko added that the governor and his lackeys have failed to controvert all his evidence-oral, documentary and electronic.

    He said: “I was invited by the EFCC, DSS and the police and my statements are with them,

    “I authenticated the documents and any attempt on my life cannot remove my message which is with all these agencies.

    “That is why they are attacking the messenger but they cannot attack the message.

    “My evidence with the security agencies are too weighty to be overlooked.“

    The former don claimed to have sworn an oath with Fayose on what he called “a pact for Ekiti development”, which he alleged the governor did not honour.