Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi and his predecessor, Peter Ayodele Fayose, have descended into a war of words over the financial status of the state, with the governor again accusing his predecessor of allegedly plundering N18 billion Paris Club Refund he said was paid the state by the Federal Government.

Governor Fayemi, who spoke while featuring on the December edition of a live radio programme tagged: “Meet your  Governor”, expressed worries over how Fayose could not defray the backlog of workers’ salaries with such money but rather preferred to allegedly divert it for other use.

Fayose had left office on October 16 owing between four and eight months salary and pension arrears.

But Fayose, through his aide, Lere Olayinka, while reacting to the accusation claimed that Governor Fayemi’s government had allegedly collected over N30billion as a refund on federal roads construction, arrears of Budget Support and Paris Club Refund, saying “he should pay workers salary with the money instead of lying against his predecessor.”

He said the claim that Fayose collected N18billion Paris Club refund and squandered it, was “a weal attempt at deceiving the people.”

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He said: “Instead of his weak attempt at deceiving the people, as usual, the governor should rather explain to Ekiti people, especially the workers why he prompted the Federal Government to withhold N2.1 billion arrears of Budget Support and N14.1 billion Paris Club refund, which was approved for payment to the state in June this year.”

Fayemi, in the programme aired live on radio and television stations in the state, said he had not collected any refund and asked those claiming that he did to come up with evidence of such receipts.

Fayemi said: “Let those making the allegation came with verifiable proofs to substantiate their claim. Let them come with evidence. I have not collected any money in the fashion of road intervention or Paris Club refund.

“Governor Fayose had the opportunity of paying the bulk of these backlog of salaries and pensions. He collected a sum of N18billion out of the N21.5billion due to Ekiti in the fund, so what is left for Ekiti is just N3.5billion which can’t pay a month if we add the overhead costs of subvented institutions.

“As we speak, we are doing a lot of cleaning and that had reduced the monthly payments to workers to N2.1billion. Those not properly employed had been left out until they provide evidence. The medical workers that were employed on the consequential ground had been reabsorbed.

“I decided to delay the appointment of politicians into government for me to be able to pay our workers. With this, Ekiti can now know who is the real and honest friend of the masses.

“I don’t want to do media trial for anyone, so I have hired the services of a renowned Audit Firm to look into our finances and the forensic state’s accounts will be published during our 100 days in office in January 2019.”

However, while exonerating Fayose’s administration from the four months salary owed workers before the expiration of his tenure, Olayinka said “it was on the basis of the N2.1 billion arrears of Budget Support and N14.1 billion Paris Club refund already approved for payment in June that Fayose promised to clear the salary arrears.

“But due to his bitter politics, Fayemi blocked the payment and more than one month after receiving the payment, he is still following his usual path of deceit instead of paying the workers.”

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