Ekiti State Government has described as total falsehood, report that the State borrowed a total sum of N56 billion since Governor Ayodele Fayose assumed office and that a fresh N25 billion loan was applied for.
The government said that; “the only fresh loan taken by the government of Fayose was the N10 billion grant from the Excess Crude Account, which was released to all States for capital projects, N2.8 billion requested from Wema Bank to pay State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) counterpart fund out of which N1 billion has been accessed and N600 million for MDGs counterpart fund, which has been repaid.”
Special Assistant to the State Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, who reacted to the report in a release issued on Monday, said; “There is no recent bulletin from the DMO website concerning the debt owed by any state as claimed in the false report. Nigerians, especially Ekiti people can visit the DMO website: https://www.dmo.gov.ng/debt-profile/domestic-debts for further clarification.”
He said; “As at the time Governor Fayose assumed office, some of the loans on the debt profile of Ekiti State were; Bond from capital market (N26.7 billion), loan for developmental projects obtained from Ecobank using Fountain Holdings (N5 billion), loan for recapitalization obtained from Wema Bank (N1 billion), commercial agric credit scheme from First Bank (N420.8 million), loan for legacy facility obtained from Ecobank (N408.2m), loan for developmental projects obtained from Skye Bank (N7.5bn), vehicle lease obtained from Ecobank (N146.6bn), laptop procurement (N375m) among others.”
“It is on record that Ekiti State Government was indebted to the tune of N86, 013,689,097 as at October 16, 2014 that Governor Fayose took over. The debts are broken down as follows: Bank Loans; N15, 831,613,425.62, Bond; N26, 749,796,784.75, Outstanding Warrants; N15, 522,552,900.76, Outstanding to Road Contractors; N21, 286,126,749, Outstanding Remittances to FG; N709, 883,656.75, Outstanding Remittances (State Govt); N592, 995,374.89 and EKSG Public Servants Outstanding Emoluments; N5, 137,888,224.37.
“Finally, the website of the DMO is www.dmo.gov.ng, Nigerians can visit the website to see whether or not there was any bulletin published this month concerning debt owed by Ekiti State government.”