Fayose accuses FG of withholding Ekiti’s January allocation

Ekiti governor, Ayodele Fayose, has accused the Federal Government of playing “dangerous politics” by allegedly withholding the January statutory allocation to the state.

During a press conference at Government House, Ado Ekiti, Fayose also claimered that the budget support for the state was also deliberately not paid to frustrate his government and caused disharmony between it and workers.

The governor, who described the action as “illegal,” alleged that the decision to fight him politically was a ploy to give the All Progressives Congress (APC) a soft-landing in the next year’s governorship election in the state.

He also claimed that the central government was using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) to thwart ongoing projects initiated by him in the state through purported frivolous petitions.

His words: “It is unavoidably necessary to bring to the public domain the current harassment, oppression and intimidation of my office and the good people of Ekiti State by the Federal Government because of my stand on national issues.

“In the last three to four weeks after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, it is sad that Ekiti federal allocation for January has not been released while other states have received their own.

“Secondly, the budget support, for which we signed an ISPO for all states in Nigeria, Ekiti remains the only state not paid for the month of January. And it seems this is deliberate because up till now, no excuse or explanation has been given. I have written to the Federal Ministry of Finance, my Commissioner has been there, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria, nobody is ready to talk to us.

“We contacted the Minister of Finance and all the directors at the ministry, everybody is shying away from talking to us for the last 10 days now.

“ It is important to note that the allocation and budget support from Abuja are our legitimate right. We have done the needful and nobody from their end has queried the process. I do not know why the average civil servant in Ekiti State should be made to suffer because of politics. It is not my salary, it is the salary of the Ekiti civil servants.“Doing this in the name of politics and to destabiliSe this state is not in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”