* It’s not true, says Commissioner
Ekiti State workers under the aegis of Enlightened Workers Forum (EWF) and Ado Ekiti Integrity Group (AIG) have accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of spending N3 billion on chartered flights across the country in pursuit of political and personal affairs.
They said such spending, described as “waste of state funds” had not in anyway added value to either governance or benefited the people since the governor came on board nearly four years in office.
The groups are therefore calling for the prosecution of the governor for allegedly diverting state funds into illegal private enterprises.
The EWF in a statement on Sunday by its Coordinator, Mike Bamidele, alleged that Fayose spends N26 million of state funds monthly on chartered flights which he noted “has dug a big hole in the Ekiti treasury.”
The workers’ pressure group alleged that Fayose junkets to Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt “where he has personal and political interests leaving governance to suffer abysmally at home in Ekiti.”
The statement reads, “We are in possession of evidence of how the governor frequently flew members of his family in and out of the state and to locations, where he spends weekends and usually holidays with his associates.
“For 47 months, the governor was said to have made countless trips and checks at aviation hiring companies were said to have revealed a mind-boggling accumulation of flight time logs that runs into a monthly average of N26 million.
“Comprehensive checks at aviation companies showed that a jet costs about $2,500 (dollars) per hour and a round trip costs around $20,000-$40,000 (dollars) depending on the whims of the client, who sometimes delay planes for hours to conclude their affairs.
In its statement, Ado Ekiti Integrity Group, expressed regret that a top aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, has earlier warned on the governor’s penchant for junketing around the country in private jets apparently on the bills of the state, but unheeded.
The statement was signed by the group’s Chairman, Dr Sikiru Eniola, on Sunday in Ado Ekiti.
”It is true that these scandals are being unearthed before the inauguration of a new administration. Ekiti citizens, regardless of party politics must rally together to ensure that this impunity does not go unanswered for.
”It is the first time that an alleged Ekiti son will inflict this humongous financial and cultural disaster on Ekiti in our centuries of existence.
”The ancestors of this land must be weeping in their graves for the number of deaths recorded under the Fayose Administration among workers who could not afford medications, penurious pensioners who died in hunger and many dependants who died because their parents, husbands, wives and relatives could not meet desired medical bills.
”Our Obas had their salaries slashed and unpaid for several months. Today is a mourning day for witnessing this impunity especially, when a park of parliamentarian renegades gathered together, to approve another scandalous extra budgetary sum of 10billion Naira. This sounds like a fairy tale but this governor and his co-conspirators have names and addresses and should be sanctioned for all these infractions.
However, the Commissioner of Information, Mr. Lanre Ogunsuyi, dismissed the allegations and dared those accusing Fayose to back their allegation with evidence.
Ogunsuyi, described the allegation as a “figment of infantile imagination of EWF.”
Describing the EWF members as “unenlightened,” Ogunsuyi said the group was only playing to the gallery to please the opposition which he described as its political paymasters.
“The allegation is untrue, does the governor charter plane to everywhere he goes every month? We are waiting for their so-called evidence to prove their allegations.”
…Governor Fayose reacts
Similarly, Governor Fayose on Sunday evening reacted to the allegations of the groups.
“Those hypocrites that are sponsoring Faceless Civil servants to raise ridiculous issue of a governor hiring aircraft to travel officially should in the absence of commercial flights in Akure Airport, travel to Abuja by Okada or Ketekete (Donkey) when they assume office in October,” he tweeted.
See his tweet below:
Those hypocrites that are sponsoring Faceless Civil servants to raise ridiculous issue of a governor hiring aircraft to travel officially should in the absence of commercial flights in Akure Airport, travel to Abuja by Okada or Ketekete (Donkey)when they assume office in October
— Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) September 16, 2018
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