How we spent N8.8bn Paris Club refund —Fayose

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8 years ago

Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has cleared the air on the allegation that his government diverted the recent Paris Club loan refund he got to other means.

Fayose, who denied the allegation and described those behind it as frustrated liars, said: “I’m somebody that whenever I received allocation or any money from the Federal Government, I usually invite workers’ leaders to a roundtable on how the money should be used.

“The fact is that the Paris Club loan refund that came to the state was N8.8 billion out of which N5.4 belonged to the state government and N3.4 billion to the local government.

“Out of our own N5.4bn, we signed an agreement with the Federal Government that 50 per cent of it would go to human capital development by way of gratuities, pensions, salaries etc.

“The remaining 50 per cent is in the revenue consolidated account of the government to meet other financial obligations to other sectors of the economy.

“So, the issue of money being diverted to other things doesn’t arise here in Ekiti. We do the needful at all times.”

Explaining further, Chief Toyin Ojo, Commissioner for Finance, gave the breakdown of how the money was channelled for state use as, “July MDAs salary, N1.4 billion; allowances of social welfare, N1.4 billion; feeding and maintenance of special schools, Ido, N2.4 million; feeding and maintenance of special school, Ikoro, N855.6 million; July 2016 subvention N722,468,038.83; June 2016 pension, N323, 463,439.79, all totalling N2,461,845,132.16.

Comrade Ade Adesanmi, Ekiti State Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), also cleared the air on the refund, saying “the critics only enjoy spreading falsehood.”