•N34.5b IGR allegedly kept in ‘secret account’
Ekiti State Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi has advised Governor Ayo Fayose to use the N5.5 billion June allocation from the Federation Account to pay workers’ salary and pensioners’ entitlements.
Fayemi also advised the governor to use the N34.5 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) cash that had accrued to the state since October 2014, which had allegedly been kept in a secret account with an old generation bank, for the benefit of the people.
In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by the Director of Media and Publicity of Fayemi Media Office, Mr. Wole Olujobi, the governor-elect urged Fayose to make accountability and human face critical factors in the policies of his outgoing administration.
The statement said: “Information available to us suggests that Fayose, at the weekend, called all the directors in the state service to a meeting in the new Governor’s Lodge, pleading with them not to release sensitive information to the opposition, including non-disclosure of the state’s finances.
“But we want to say that the state has received N5.52 billion as Federal allocation for June. We demand that the money be spent to pay salary. It should not be subjected to the circus of lies and deceits that often accompanied the sharing of the allocations in the past, whereby local governments were given their shares in the morning and in the night they would be coerced to return the money to the Governor’s Office while local government workers remained unpaid for nine months.
“Fresh reports on the status of the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) have indicated that between October 16, 2014 to date, the state has a revenue profile of N34,560,000,000 kept in secret accounts in an old generation bank account and another new generation bank account. Yet, there is nothing to suggest that the money was spent for the benefit of Ekiti people.
“This revenue profile in the two banks is outside the traffic and environmental offences, fines and charges reportedly kept in accounts unknown to the state’s accounting and financial system at an old generation bank at Ijigbo area of the state capital.”
Regretting that cloudy manner of doing government’s business had rendered the state’s economy comatose, Fayemi said evidence showed that massive fraud existed at the Water Corporation and Sports Council, where government’s cash and vehicles had allegedly disappeared without trace.
He said: “At the State Water Corporation, where an opaque financial management has left the system in ruins, Ondo State had paid its counterpart fund of N40 million for the upgrading of Egbe Dam, but the Ekiti State government has refused to honour its obligation to the project, even as the money paid by Ondo State cannot be traced to any government’s account.
“At Ero Dam, despite releasing N1 billion on paper out of N1.4 billion budgeted for the dam’s expansion, there is no sign of work going on there as we speak, while in the same Water Corporation, two multi-million naira serviceable trucks were taken to Afao-Ekiti country home of the governor several months ago under the pretext that they were being taken there for repairs. But up till now, the trucks are still not in the service of the Water Corporation.
“This followed the same pattern whereby the state lost five unserviceable vehicles at the State Sports Council to new owners without any public bidding and auctioning to take possession of the vehicles.
“For instance, reports indicated that three Toyota Hiace buses, one 504 Peugeot and one Nissan 120Y had disappeared from the premises of the corporation on the alleged order of the governor.
“This is besides illegal auctioning of several government vehicles at ridiculous prices to cronies, who later assembled the same vehicles at a motor showroom in Ibadan (Oyo State) for resale to the public.”
Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, did not react to the allegations last night.
Workers give governor 14 days to pay them
Ekiti State workers have issued a 14-day ultimatum to Governor Ayo Fayose to pay their salary arrears and pensions of retirees.
Acting under the aegis of Ekiti State Organised Labour, the workers said the Fayose administration must clear all arrears of workers’ entitlements before a new government takes office on October 16.
The workers’ demands were contained in a bulletin issued on Saturday.
Their demands also include payment of over seven months’ deductions, payment of nine months of arrears to local government workers and primary school teachers.
The bulletin reads: “Workers in the public service of Ekiti State have been suffering over the years with nobody to rescue them in relation to payment of salaries, pensions and other benefits.
“The import of this is that the condition of service of an average worker in Ekiti is deplorable or poor, despite the huge funds allocated to Ekiti State from the Federation Account between 2014 to date.
“In view of the present development in the state, occasioned by the result of the governorship election, it has become necessary to assess the implication on welfare of workers, vis-à-vis the arrears of unpaid salaries.
“To avoid a situation whereby the incoming government may wish to foot-drag on the payment of the arrears of salary on the premise that the organised labour was inept to the payment of same by the outgoing government, thus amounting to a huge financial burden on the new government.
“The state government is hereby given a 14-day ultimatum to meet these demands.”
