Ekiti House of Assembly adopts report indicting Fayemi, Oni

THE Ekiti State House of Assembly on Thursday, adopted a report submitted by its House Committee on Public Accounts in which the state’s Auditor General’s considerations were appraised.

The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr Adedayo Akinleye, who presented the report, said it was a 2015 report and add that the report detailed the state’s Auditor-General’s queries, findings, and recommendations on alleged graft and other irregularities during both ex-Governors Segun Oni’s and Kayode Fayemi’s administrations.

Akinleye said: “Today we have presented a report of the auditors to the House. It is the first ever in the history of Nigeria and the South-West particularly. Before now, all the auditors’ reports are usually swept under the carpet but we are presenting the report to the House to show that we have nothing to hide.

“A lot of issues were raised by the Accountant General and we have looked into them and made appropriate recommendations on them. In the report we presented, a lot of issues were raised on the alleged misappropriation of public funds by the administration of ex-Governors Fayemi and Oni.

According to him, “while some of the issues are based on alleged misuse of public funds, many were based on improper documentation.”

He pointed out that “in the 2015 report as given by the Auditor-General about the Fayemi’s administration, one of the issues raised which relate to misuse of funds, is the one about the evasion of tax by one firm which was to the turn of N130 million. The firm withdrew over N1 billion about 16 days to the June, 2014 governorship election and succeeded in evading a tax of over N130 million.”

He also said “another misappropriation was the beautification project the Fayemi administration carried out in Ekiti,” saying the report didn’t show evidence of proper documentation of the execution of the project that gulped about N1.5 billion.”

He alleged that “those whom the Fayemi government said they gave the money to could not be traced.”

Akinleye also said “the alleged misuse of money during the Segun Oni administration is about the release of $4,000 by Ekiti people in the diaspora. We invited the then confidential secretary to Oni, Mrs Omope who explained that the governor got the money from her then and explained her side of the story. We decided to quash the query on that money since the Segun Oni government is not known to law.”

The House eventually adopted the report and agreed to begin debate on its recommendations and findings on Tuesday, October 24.