Fayose attacks Fayemi over alleged looting of Ekiti treasury

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has again attacked the minister of mines and steel development Kayode Fayemi and described him as a “shamelessly shameless man, who ordinarily should be facing trial superintending over the looting of Ekiti treasury with reckless abandon during his four years as governor.”

Daily Post reports that this is contained in a statement by the governor’s special assistant on public communications and new media Lere Olayinka.

According to Olayinka, Fayemi, a former governor of the State, has never won any election in Ekiti.

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He said: “Even the primary election that gave him the Action Congress (AC) governorship ticket in 2006 was manipulated and those who did the manipulation are still alive. He was roundly defeated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007 and in the rerun election of 2009 until the governorship was handed to him through the most scandalous judicial manipulation in the history of Nigeria.”

Olayinka was reacting to Fayemi’s comment about Fayose in a national daily.

He added: “In saner climes, a man like Fayemi, who was indicted by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) for illegally withdrawing the sum of N852.9 million from the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) account, making UBEC to suspend Ekiti State from accessing any further FGN-UBE Intervention Fund will be burying his head in shame.”

He challenged Fayemi to come out openly to declare his intention to contest the 2018 governorship, adding that “In Ekiti today, one product that is a hard-sell is Dr John Kayode Fayemi and the earlier he realises this, the better for him. When he mounts the campaign podium, what will he be telling Ekiti people?

“Is Fayemi going to be reminding Ekiti people how he plunged the State into debt, hunted teachers with competency test that was only meant to reduce the number of teachers in the State, harassed local government workers with what was known as ‘LG Boko Haram’ and sacked duly elected council chairmen and councillors as well as council Directors of Admin, Treasurers among others?

“It is on record that apart from regular monthly allocation and Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) fund among others, Fayemi’s received N46.4 billion from the Excess Crude Account, yet he took N25 billion bond and N31 billion commercial bank loan. One of such frivolous loans was the N5 billion obtained from a commercial bank without the Debt Management Office (DMO) approval, using Fountain Holdings Limited, a company with N15 million share capital.

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“Up till today, he is still running away from facing the State House of Assembly to answer questions on how he looted Ekiti treasury, especially how a limited liability company with N15 million share capital could be used to borrow N5 billion and when it became the duty of Fountain Holdings Limited to construct roads.”

He concluded: “As governor, Fayemi failed Ekiti people and as a minister, he is also failing Ekiti people because up till today, he cannot point to one benefit Ekiti has derived from having him as minister of Mines and Steel Development despite the numerous solid minerals in the State.”

Meanwhile, Fayemi's mines ministry has sanction no fewer than 313 mining companies over non fulfilment of environmental obligations.

Salim Salaam, the Director, Mines Environmental Compliance Department, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, March 21 in Abuja.