Fayose Lied On Claims Over Paris Club Refund, Says APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has tackled Governor Ayodele Fayose over claims that the fresh Paris Club refund will be insufficient to pay more than one month salary.
The party said all the governor’s claims to Labour leaders that the fresh fund is half of the last refund is false, misleading and an attempt to misappropriate the money for selfish reasons.
The governor had last week called some selected Labour leaders to a meeting to brief them about the fresh Paris Club refunds due to states to pay workers salaries.
In the table of Paris Club refunds to all the 36 states released by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Ekiti State’s share is N9.6b
But on his media chat programme on the state media and at the meeting with Labour leaders, the governor said the money due to Ekiti was half of the last refund of N8.8b, claiming that debts deductions and local government share of the refund had shrunk the balance to N4b for Ekiti State Government.
But reacting in a statement, APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the governor was only applying “his usual distortion of facts to brainwash Ekiti workers and people in general in order to misapply the money for selfish reasons”.
Olatunbosun noted that the refund is neither subject to any deduction over debts nor having any local government component that will make the cash shared to Ekiti State to be less than N9.6b as published by the Federal Government.
According to him, only statutory allocations are subject to deductions over state’s debts.
He added that conditions are also attached to the refund, principal among which is to pay backlog of workers’ salaries and other benefits.
He said: “Fayose in his usual manner has during his last media chat denied that Ekiti share of the Paris Club Refund is N9.6b but N8.8b which he further reduced to N4.4b in his usual mathematical abracadabra to divert the money once again.
“Fayose hinted during the programme that what Ekiti got as refund from the Paris Club could barely pay a month salary because of deductions.
“We challenge Governor Fayose over this false claim as the Paris refund is not subject to any deduction. It is the state’s monthly allocation that is subject to deduction while the local government allocation is also not subject to deduction.
“It was Ekiti State Government that borrowed money from the Paris Club and not the local governments and so refunds cannot be made to local government.
“The N9.6b refund is exclusively for the state government to pay salary and so any other claims by Fayose to brainwash the workers to deny them their entitlements once again is not only wicked and selfish, but also a fraudulent practice that Fayose has elevated to an official policy to short-change the state and her people at all times.”
Explaining that the funds available to the state for now are enough to pay the backlog of salaries and other allowances, Olatunbosun said:
“The Paris Club figure of N9.6b is intact apart from the regular monthly allocation of N1.9b after deductions.
“Another cash of monthly N1.3b budget support fund, including Internally Generated Revenue of about N300m is there and this is separate from the local government allocation, thus bringing total cash this month alone to N13.1b.
“Documents from the Accountant-General’s Office and that of the Auditor-General’s Office have shown that the actual monthly state wage bill is N1.7b even though Fayose always claims it is the same bill of N2.6b that Fayemi paid workers, even at a time Fayose jerked it up to N5.3b monthly on the eve of the release of the first bailout of N9.6b.
“We expect Fayose to pay a minimum of six months salary arrears as anything short of this means Fayose has diverted the fund to the bridge and market projects where he will get kickbacks as usual to the detriment of workers and pensioners.”
While calling on workers not to allow themselves to be fooled again by the governor, Olatunbosun adverted them to newspapers, radio and television jingles sponsored by the Federal Government on how much each state gets and the conditions for the release of the refunds.
He added: “Fayose has so far collected two tranches of bailout totalling18.1b, Paris refund of N9.6billion, 13.2b budget support for nine months and Federal allocation averaging N1.8b monthly for 12 months while IGR figures remain undisclosed, making it N49.1 without IGR in a year.
“Yet with all these, salaries and pensions are owed for seven and nine months respectively and gratuity not paid since 2014 while graduates are jobless but it is convenient for the governor to continue to divert money to the flyover and new market projects in which he and his friends outside the state have interest.”
Olatunbosun also said that Ekiti people were not deceived by declaring June 12 a public holiday in marked departure from the governor’s hostile posturing against June 12 during his first time.
“We know that Fayose just wants to con Ekiti workers as if he is their friend at the time he has again made up his mind to deceive them again n the fresh Paris Club.
“June 12 represents the emancipation of the people to serve their larger interest and so if Fayose is genuinely interested in the affairs of the people, he should let the spirit of June 12 govern his conduct by paying workers’ salaries, pensions and gratuity from the Paris Club refund.
“It is sheer wickedness to continue self-enrichment through fraudulent funds management while graduates are jobless, salaries, pensions and gratuity are unpaid, banks and investors closing their shops over ceaseless demands for funds and while armed robbers and kidnappers stalk the state over the governor’s refusal to fund security agencies, even as directors in most ministries and House of Assembly personally pay for stationery to run their offices.
“It is an act of wickedness for the governor to divert the Paris Club meant strictly to pay workers’ salary for the third time for projects he has interest while workers and pensioners die of hunger,” he concluded.
