According to The Punch, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has accused his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of spending N50m on beds in his and his wife’s bedrooms in the newly built Ekiti State Government House. He claimed in a statement made available to journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday that what was spent on the two bedrooms, their toilets and bathrooms was in the region of N100m.
The statement titled “N3.3bn new Government House Is Fayemi’s Show of Wickedness To Ekiti People,” was signed by his Special Assistant on Information and Social Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka. But Fayemi, through his media aide, Olayinka Oyebode, said the allegation was more about The Comedy of Errors. He advised Fayose to stop the theatre of absurd.
The statement by Olayinka described the new government house as an act of insensitivity to the plight of Ekiti people, many of whom, could not afford to feed once in a day. According to the statement, no progressive-minded Ekiti person would see the “out-of-this-world luxury” provided with over N3.3bn borrowed funds for Fayemi, his wife and children and will not weep for the state and its people.
It claimed that the bed on which Fayemi slept before he left government was N30m while that of his wife was over N20m. The statement read in part, “Between Fayemi and his wife, what was spent on their bedrooms, toilets and bathrooms will be in the region of N100m.
“How can a responsible government use borrowed funds to provide this kind of luxury for the governor and his family alone in a state where a lot of people cannot afford to feed more than once in a day? “People should ask the former governor what was really wrong with the abandoned governor’s lodge used by his (Fayemi) predecessors?
“Shouldn’t such funds expended on the hilltop edifice have been used to resuscitate the moribund textile factory in Ado-Ekiti that was turned to lock-up shops to provide employment for our teeming youths? “Also, was Fayemi living in that manner of opulence before he became governor? Was he sleeping on a body-massaging bed and bathing in an electric-controlled Jacuzzi?
“Here is Fayemi, who could not pay workers salaries, owing them two-month salaries before he left. A Fayemi, who out of sheer wickedness refused to pay pensioners N2.4bn pension and gratuities; N400m workers leave bonus, N700m subventions to parastatals and tertiary institutions and remit N2.4bn four months’ cooperative society’s deductions from workers salaries preferring to use N3.3bn borrowed funds to provide luxury for himself, his wife and children alone. “This is wickedness!’’
The statement quoted Fayose as being alarmed at the waste of Ekiti resources to provide comfort for a single family out of the thousands of households in the state.
It added, “The governor would have preferred to sell out the property and use the fund to provide basic amenities and employment opportunities for the people.”
The statement also alleged that Fayemi was planning to buy a helicopter if he had returned to office for a second term because the plan was for him “to run government from the comfort of Oke-Ayoba Government House and move from there to anywhere he wanted without the people seeing him.”
It this is true, then a probe is imminent! What’s your take?