By Rotimi Ojomoyela
The Deputy Director General, Kayode Fayemi Campaign Council, Bamidele Faparusi, has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of making surreptitious moves to procure a N5 billion loan to fund the July 14, governorship election.
Fayemi and Fayose
Describing the alleged action as wicked and senseless in the sense that civil servants in the state have not been paid salary in the past six months.
In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Monday, Faparusi exuded confidence that the APC will trounce the PDP in the impending poll, Faparusi also bemoaned that Fayose has accumulated a debt burden of N60 billion debt amassed since 2014.
Faparusi appealed to the people of the state to reject what he portrayed as Fayose’s ‘evil continuity agenda, saying this would further debase Ekiti morally and financially as well as injecting the culture of mediocrity into governance.
He said: “Available information from the State Ministry of Finance confirmed that Governor Fayose had last week fine tuned arrangement and got secret approval with a new generation bank for a N5 billion loan.
“Our party is not averse to borrowing of money to initiate landmark projects that will impact positively on people’s lives , but this should not be deployed to fund elections under the guise of desperation to foist continuity agenda using a stooge that has mediocrity and incompetence boldly written all over his body.
“It marvelled us as Ekiti people that Governor Fayose could not borrow money to complete the Civic Centre and the State Pavilion built by his predecessor, Dr. Fayemi , but could be so callous and mean to borrow a staggering sum of N5b to win election in Ekiti.
We’re not reckless like you, says Ekiti Commissioner
Debunking the allegation, the commissioner for Information, Hon. Lanre Ogunsuyi, described the allegation as coming from a ‘demented’ mind,
saying Fayose has not committed Ekiti to any form of indebtedness since he came on board.
Ogunsuyi said: “My reaction to whatever Dr. Fayemi’s campaign council says will always be that they should stop playing dirty politics, because it will take them nowhere in this coming election.
Ogunsuyi added further: “Well, I won’t blame them on the strength of their past records. When Fayemi was in government, they borrowed a sum of N5 billion from Eco Bank six weeks to election through the Fountain
Holdings that has less than 5 percent capital to fund the June 21, 2014 election, so they thought we are gullible like them and that we will do same.
“They spent the money recklessly on the day of election and they still lost 16-0. The questions now are; what is name of the bank? Again, which date did we take it?
“It was in the same light they said they said the flyover bridge cost N17.6 billion, which in actual fact was built with a sum of N 5.2b. We said it was N5.2b, contractors said same, but Fayemi on his own said it was N17.6b.