The immediate-past Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described as false the claim by his successor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, that the state was indebted to the tune of N170 billion.
In a Wednesday statement by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, the ex-governor said that the state only had N60 billion debt, adding that the sum was either incurred during Fayemi’s first term in office or as a result of the loans restructuring done at the instance of the Federal Government and the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Fayose reiterated that he did not commit the state to any financial institution in form of commercial loans or bonds.
The governor gave the breakdown of the state’s loan obligations as: Commercial Bank Loan, N2,08 billion; CBN Grant for Water Project, N163.45 million; Excess Crude Account Backed Loan, N9.5 billion; Bailout, N9.08 billion; FGN Bonds, N18.22 billion; State Bonds, N3.48 billion and Budget Support, N16.86 billion.
Read Also: Ogun 2019: I Never Agreed To Support Dapo Abiodun’s Emergence – Amosun
According to him, it is impossible for a state owing N170 billion as claimed by Fayemi to be making N1.1 billion monthly repayment.
He added, “Fayemi should publish the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ekiti State Executive Council and House of Assembly approvals for the loans since no loan can be taken without these approvals.”
He added, “In September this year, Fayemi claimed that Ekiti debt was N117 billion, one month after, he said the debt is N170 billion. So, the debt increased from N117 billion to N170 billion in less than 30 days?
“The Federal Government deliberately refused to release legitimate funds belonging to Ekiti State to the Fayose administration and for this reason; the arrears of salary could not be cleared as promised.”
Leave a Reply