Fayose Pays Self N720 Million Salary for Unfinished First Tenure

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of awarding himself N720 million as arrears of his unfinished first term as the state’s governor. Fayose was controversially impeached by the then state House of Assembly when he was governor between May 29, 2003 and October 2006.

Describing the action as unjustifiable, especially when workers and pensioners in the state were yet to receive their salaries, the party’s Publicity Secretary in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, noted in a statement that the governor has not paid workers their last September salary arrears and has also not paid pensioners in the last four months.

But the governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, immediately waved off the allegation, describing it as falsehood.

The APC statement said, “Gov Fayose left office on October 16, 2006, eight months to the end of his tenure and Ekiti State had had three governors within that period. Does it then make any sense that the same Fayose would come back eight years after to approve payment already made to three governors after him for himself?

“Let’s even assume that the eight months salary is to be paid. Is the monthly salary of a governor more than N1m? How then does, say N1m per month, equal N720m in eight months?

“Again, severance allowance is 300 per cent of annual basic salary and the basic salary of a governor is not more than N2m. So can N2m in three places be equal to N720m?

The APC publicity secretary described as “shameful and heartless” the Gov Fayose’s refusal to pay the statutory N5,000 pensions benefit to elders in the state under the social security scheme put in place by his predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi.

The party also accused the governor of refusal to pay traditional rulers for five months, while also refusing to pay gratuity to a single retired worker since he assumed office.

The statement added, “Though he admitted he is owing only May salary (as if he has any excuse to owe Ekiti workers for one day), as we write, over 10,000 Ekiti workers are yet to receive their April salaries. This is because not all workers he claimed to have paid have actually received their salaries. What he has been doing is to pay 10 out of 300 workers in a ministry and then goes to town with his propagandists that he has fully paid. Only last week, he electronically paid N13m into the accounts of each of the 16 local governments and collected the cash back from the council chairmen for purported joint projects, like he did in his fraudulent poultry project in 2004.”

The APC challeged the governor to explain what he is doing with the monies he saved from the empowerment programmes he reportedly cancelled.

Responding, Adelusi stated, “This is simply falsehood promoted to the most ridiculous level and we wish the APC spokesperson, Taiwo Olatubosun, well in his lying assignment.”