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Fayose accuses FG of withholding Paris Club refunds to starve Ekiti

By Ayodele Afolabi, Ado Ekiti
22 June 2018   |   2:08 am
Governor Ayodele Fayose has accused the Federal Government of deliberately withholding states’ Paris Club loan refunds to prevent him from paying salary arrears before the election.He disclosed this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi.

Ayodele Fayose

Warns electoral body against ‘Edo formula’

Governor Ayodele Fayose has accused the Federal Government of deliberately withholding states’ Paris Club loan refunds to prevent him from paying salary arrears before the election.He disclosed this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi.

Fayose said the Federal Government was refusing to release the refunds as it did in Kogi State, despite the fact that Ekiti and other states had been cleared to receive them.He said: “If it is released to other states without including Ekiti, people would suspect it of playing politics. It used that tactics in Kogi to assist the APC candidate to win the election.

“I am using this forum to inform Ekiti people that the Federal Government is punishing and depriving them of their entitlement because of politics.” The governor disclosed that the Federal Government is hoping that the electorate would vote for the APC, if he is not able to pay the outstanding four months salaries owed the workers.He stressed that Ekiti people are not fools, because they know that the Fayemi administration had plunged the state into debts.

“Fayemi left two months salaries unpaid and N1.2billion is being deducted every month from Ekiti allocations to service the debts. So far, N35.34billion has been removed.“If I have N35.34billion, I will not owe workers, and would be able to take care of the needs of the people. Ekiti people will never accept the APC again,” he added.

The governor also warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against stopping the collation of elections results midway, as was done during the governorship election in Edo State.“I want to appeal to the INEC to be a good umpire, live up to its name as independent body. Election should not be stopped midway, or counting stopped midway, because PDP is winning and APC is losing.

“Edo formula will not be accepted here. Ekiti people are known to resist cheating and they will defend their votes,” he said.Fayose further disclosed that during his first tenure in 2003, he inherited debts from the Alliance for Democracy (AD)-led government under Niyi Adebayo.“I cleared the debts and when I was leaving the government in 2006, I left N10.4billion in the treasury. This is for you to know that the APC is a bad manager of state finances.

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