EKITI State's chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged its state governor Ayo Fayose to publicly declare his assets as President Muhammadu Buhari and vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo have done.
Of late, Governor Fayose has been one of President Buhari's fiercest critics, accusing him of ethnic bias in his appointments, of being selective in his fight against corruption and of failing to deliver during his 100 days in office. Hitting back at the controversial governor, the Ekiti State chapter of the APC has challenged him to take a leaf from the president's book and declare his assets too.
Taiwo Olatunbosun, the publicity secretary of the Ekiti State chapter of the APC, said that Governor Fayose has been in office for 10 months, which is enough time to declare his assets. He added that the former APC governor in the state Kayode Fayemi, publicly declared his assets to the applause of Ekiti people.
Mr Olatubosun said: The governor must seize the opportunity of declaring his assets to douse speculations of his alleged funnelling of the state resources to his private enterprises abroad. It is curious that he has not abused President Muhammadu Buhari and vice president Yemi Osinbajo after they declared their assets.
"Fayose’s loud silence on the president in this case is curious because the governor has never seen anything good in whatever the president does. “We are worried by the unconfirmed reports of primitive acquisitions by the governor who allegedly owns properties in Ghana, Dubai, South Africa, Abuja, Ibadan and Banana Islands and Magodo in Lagos, which were believed to have been acquired in the last nine months after he assumed office."
Tasking the governor to act now to restore the confidence of the Ekiti people in accountable governance, Mr Olatubosun said such an open declaration of assets would shame the governor's critics who have accused him of diverting state funds to private use. He added that the Ekiti people would be interested in the governor’s public declaration of his assets, considering the experience the state had under him during his aborted first tenure when he was taken to court for misappropriating N1.3bn (£4.2m).
“Our party is aware that Fayose had no visible means of income prior to October 16, 2014 when he became governor and the properties he owned in Ibadan and Lagos are subjects of litigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is probing the governor for misappropriation and diversion of N1.3bn poultry project cash to personal use in 2005. Fayose is alleged to be building a state-of-the-art hotel in Dubai after he became Ekiti governor and after he is also reported to have paid a whopping N722m (£2.3m) to himself as arrears of his allowances as governor during his first term on the strength of the Supreme Court judgment which nullified his impeachment.
“Curiously too, Fayose has kept mute on various sums of money he has received on behalf of the state government, such as the N22bn refund on federal roads, N2bn ecological fund, N2bn micro credit fund, N2.1bn bailout NLNG fund, N9.6bn bailout cash, N8.5bn windfall received in June and an average of N3bn regular federal allocations he has been receiving since October 2014 till date. It would be recalled that in his former declaration of assets in 2003, the governor allegedly swore to an oath declaring two barren lands in a thick forest and two completed mansions in Ibadan, which the EFCC later confirmed as properties built with the alleged proceeds of the fraudulent poultry project four years after he became governor."
In addition, Mr Olatubosun pointed out that Governor Fayose's recent appointment by of a 72 year old illiterate as a council boss and many other of his yes-men in others has fuelled suspicion that he has successfully converted the resources of local governments to his personal use without being accountable to anyone. He added that the APC might have no option than taking legal action to force the governor to declare his assets to dispel rumours and allegations of properties acquisitions with state funds across the globe.
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