Tag: Fayose
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2019: Fayose has helped put Buhari’s govt on its toes – Balarabe Musa
A former governor of the old Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, has said Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has helped checkmated the excesses of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration by always voicing out his opinion as a member of the opposition.
Musa also noted that Fayose exercised his constitutional right when he declared his ambition to become Nigeria’s president in 2019 and must not be vilified for doing so.
The elder statesman spoke on the sidelines of the wedding of a daughter of former Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in Ondo Town on Saturday.
“It is the right of every Nigerian to aspire for the office of the President of Nigeria,” he said.
“Anybody from any section of the country who has met the constitutional requirements can vie for the presidency. There should be no restriction because the country is in the need of a right leader.
“Whoever that will emerge will be president of Nigeria, and not president of a section.
“Fayose is exercising his right, it is wrong for anybody to vilify him for declaring his ambition.
“The man is bold, courageous and has put the Buhari government on its toes. Anybody having interest should come out so that we can compare.”
Speaking on the issue of restructuring, Musa noted that the agitation had become expedient because of insecurity, poverty, hunger and inequality in the county.
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EFCC probe: Fayose ‘rewards’ released officials with car gifts for ‘loyalty to the state’
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on Sunday ‘rewarded’ the Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo, and the Accountant General, Mrs. Yemisi Owolabi who were recently arrested and released the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the two officials spent two weeks in the custody of the anti-graft agency for alleged diversion of over N680 million from the state’s share of bailout funds.
Fayose, in a fulfillment of his earlier promise presented the two officials with new Kia Rio cars after a thanksgiving service to mark the third anniversary of his administration. They were arrested in Abuja on September 28 while attending the governor’s declaration to run for President in 2019.
The governor noted that the car gift was meant to honour them for their “for their loyalty to the state” in the face of a fresh onslaught by the anti-graft agency.
The governor also held a welcome party for Ojo and Owolabi last Thursday, which he declared as “half-work day,’ to allow civil servants attend the occasion.
Speaking at the thanksgiving service, Fayose said: “We have to reward you for enduring intimidation, mental and emotional torture and illegal incarceration for the sake of our state. The Constitution of Nigeria does not empower the EFCC to arrest state officials over alleged graft.
“That function belongs to our House of Assembly. We will sue the EFCC to court for this illegality, pursue the case to a logical conclusion and get damages for this ill-treatment.
“The Constitution of Nigeria is supreme and has over-riding influence over any government parastatal, such as EFCC.”
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Fayose diverted N680m bailout funds to a fixed deposit account – EFCC
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State of diverting the N680 million bailout funds meant for the payment of salaries and pension of civil servants in the state.
The amount has been traced to a fixed account which the EFCC claims yields N6 million monthly.
The discoveries informed the arrest of the state’s commissioner of finance and the accountant general by the commission.
Both officials, who were released on Wednesday, have made commitment to “assist the commission with relevant documents before they were granted administrative bail and ordered to report back in two weeks.”
According to a top source in the commission, many facts came to light in the course of investigating alleged misapplication of the bailout funds by the Fayose administration.
One of such disclosures is the N1.7billion contract awarded to a Lebanese Company. The company moved part of the money to allegedly purchase properties for the governor.
The source added: “Investigators stumbled on evidence of diversion of funds meant for payment of state and local government employees in Ekiti State including pensioners.
“Specifically, over N600million was diverted on 25 January 2016. The funds comprising N200million from the Ekiti State Local Government Salary Account, N300million from the Ekiti State Pension Account and N180million from the Ekiti State FAAC Account were first credited into the Consolidated Revenue Account in Zenith Bank on 25 January 2016 and later transferred the same day into an account called 2015 MDG-CGS state project account domiciled in Zenith Bank.
“The analysis of the bank statement revealed that the money was later placed in a fixed deposit where it was yielding monthly interest of about N6million, at a time pensioners and workers in Ekiti State are owed months of unpaid entitlements.”
The source said that EFCC investigators are poring over documents to uncover the beneficiaries of the monthly interest on the fixed deposit.
Apart from the bailout funds, the EFCC had recently also uncovered alleged diversion of over N59.6million meant for projects under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ekiti State by one Abiodun Agbele, who is an associate of the state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.
According to EFCC investigators, the MDGs’ funds were transferred from an account in the First Bank of Nigeria(titled MDGs-CGS Local Govt) to BYKD Consult Limited which is purportedly owned by Agbele.
Documents indicated that the funds were transferred in four tranches as follows: February 18, 2015(N18, 159, 050; N15, 319,850; N11, 218, 500; and March 30, 2015—N15, 704, 325.
Upon the receipt of the funds through his account 0059177132 in Diamond Bank, Bodija, Agbele allegedly diverted these for the payment of choice vehicles from Affordable Motors.
Agbele, who is presently on trial was said to have been used as a front to launder N1.299billion for Fayose through his company called De-Privateer.
But as the EFCC operatives were probing more clues on slush funds and payment of kickback by contractors in the state, they uncovered alleged diversion of MDGs’ funds.
The Presidency had released N713.7billion as Special intervention funds to states.
The bailout was part of a three-pronged relief package to end the workers plight in most of the 36 states.
While N413.7billion represented special intervention funds, the balance of about N250billion to N300billion was a soft loan to states.
Also, following protest by states against over deductions for external debt service between 1995 and 2002, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the release of N522.74 billion (first tranche) to states as refunds pending reconciliation of records.
Each state was entitled to a cap of N14.5 billion being 25% of the amounts claimed.
The second tranche of N243, 795,465,195.20 was also disbursed to states in July.
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Delay in Ekiti workers’ salaries not caused by arrest of Fayose’s commissioners – APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said the arrest of the Commissioner of Finance, Toyin Ojo and Accountant General, Mrs. Yemisi Owolabi, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not the cause of the delay in the payment of workers’ salaries.
The party described the claim by the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Odunayo Adesoye, as “another conspiratorial role that some labour leaders have been playing to sabotage the interest of their members”.
In a statement yesterday, Ekiti State APC’s Publicity Secretary Taiwo Olatunbosun expressed regrets that Labour had failed to protect the interests of workers but was ready to defend Governor Ayo Fayose’s alleged failure to pay their entitlements.
Olatunbosun said: “It is common knowledge that a section of the Labour movement has compromised their office in the protection of workers’ interest. But Fayose should not hide under the arrest of the Commissioner for Finance, Toyin Ojo and the Accountant General, Yemisi Owolabi, for non-payment of salary.
“Ojo is not a signatory to any salary account; there are two other alternate signatories who include the Director of Funds Management.
“Ekiti people and workers in particular should also note that when the Accountant General was on leave for about three weeks recently, the financial transactions of the state were going on unhindered.
“Therefore, contrary to TUC’s claim, there is no reason the arrest of the two state officials should be an excuse for non-payment of salaries by the governor, which of course, he has not been paying before their arrest.
“Fayose has received several billions of naira in the form of bailout and Paris Club refund but has refused to pay workers’ salaries for five months: local government workers for eight months’ and pensioners’ 13 months’ allowance arrears. These include his refusal to pay the severance package of former political office holders after the funds for these purposes were captured in tranches of bailout and Paris Club refund.”
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the commissioners were recently arrested by operatives of the EFCC over their alleged diversion of the bailout and Paris Club refunds.
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2019: Ladoja backs Fasoye’s presidential ambition
A former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashid Ladoja, on Saturday declared support for Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, who aims to be Nigeria’s president come 2019.
After a meeting with Fayose, Ladoja today backed the governor’s bid to contest in the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Despite the party has zoned the presidential ticket to the North while the Southwest is to produce the National Chairman. Fayose, who is the chairman of the PDP Governor’s Forum, is from the Southwest.
But Ladoja, while affirming that he was returning to the PDP, said that Fayose had the fundamental rights to contest for the nation’s number one seat.
“Governor Fayose is my own brother and he is a go-getter. Whatever he sets his mind to achieve, he goes for it and he gets it. He is eminently qualified and possesses all the leadership capabilities to rule Nigeria and take us out of the woods.
“Some people in the PDP have said that they have zoned the presidency to the north, but it is left for Fayose to convince the members in the PDP to support him for his presidential ambition. He is fit for it judging from his antecedents as a quintessential leader in the country.
“I also want to advise the party leadership to use zoning of the presidency in a way that would guarantee the PDP winning the election in 2019 and not as a way of favouring some individuals who may not be ready for the job.”
Ladoja said the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti should perish the thought of taking over power from the PDP in 2018.
He also expressed confidence that the PDP would take over power from APC in Oyo in 2019, saying Governor Abiola Ajimobi had lost relevance, especially, with kingship crisis.
“The whole charade would not stand and cannot stand as our tradition, norms and regulations in Ibadan recognizes only Olubadan as the custodian of Obaship title and one who can confer it on anyone.”
“Fayose has performed excellently well in governing Ekiti. There is no governor in this country today who can beat his chest two times and say my state came tops for two consecutive times in NECO.
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Why I declared support for Fayose’s presidential bid – Fani-Kayode
A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has explained why he is backing the presidential bid of the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
Mr. Fayose had on Thursday in Abuja formally declared his intention to run for president in 2019 on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In a statement sent to TheNewsGuru.com on Saturday via email, Mr. Fani-Kayode, said he was backing Mr. Fayose because of his courage, frankness and conviction.
“I stood with Governor Ayodele Fayose because, unlike most, he has courage,” the former minister said.
“We come from completely different backgrounds and we do not agree on everything but we have a similar disposition and we share the same perspective on most things.
“He is not bound up in fear and he is not chained down by political correctness. He speaks the raw and bitter truth and he stands up for the weak and the defenceless.
“Like me, he moves in the prophetic and his source of strength is the spirit and power of God.“We both love God and we are both men of strength, courage, faith and destiny. The spirit of David and Jehu runs through us both. We neither fear death nor incarceration and we hate injustice, evil and oppression.”
Mr. Fani-Kayode said the governor had done an excellent job in Ekiti State since he assumed office and had consistently and fearlessly stood against “the evil of the Buhari administration and constantly kept them on their toes.”
He added, “He is a Yoruba man who has the courage and conviction to say that he wants to be president. Why would I not stand with him and attend the launching of his campaign?
“I believe that he would make an excellent president and effect the necessary changes and restructuring that our country desperately needs.
“I am very proud of Ayo Fayose and I never desert or abandon my friends. He is and will always be my friend and brother.”
Meanwhile, recall that Fayose’s plan to run for president has drawn fierce criticisms from members of his party, who describe it as a violation of the zoning agreement reached by the party in 2015.
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Buhari, APC afraid of imminent defeat in 2019 – Fayose
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said the imminent defeat of President Muhammadu Buhari in a free and fair election in 2019 is the major reason the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government is harassing and intimidating his aides and associates.
He also said the blunt truth he told Nigerians during his declaration of interest that Buhari and the APC had nothing good to offer Nigeria has pierced the conscience of APC leaders and given them wounded heart.
He, however, said he won’t be intimidated into abandoning a divine project of rescuing the country from maladministration.
Fayose, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, on Friday, said notwithstanding needless harassment, whoever thought he could stop a moving train with bare hands would have himself to blame in the end.
The governor described the arrest of two officials of the state by agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as the height of impunity, as a competent court of jurisdiction had ordered against such action.
The governor said the action of the EFCC was in flagrant disobedience to the orders of Justice Taiwo. O. Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti in the case of the Attorney General of Ekiti State versus EFCC, IGP and 16 others granted on November 7, 2016.
The order reads in part: ” an order of interim injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants (which is the EFCC and the Inspector General of Police, their agents, privies or any other investigative agencies, howsoever described) from arresting, detaining or investigating any person or persons, whether past or present officials in the Ekiti State Government, without any report of indictment from the Ekiti State House of Assembly pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice filed in this suit “.
While contending that the order of the court had not been vacated or appealed by the agency, the governor added that the agency’s action showed desperation and political partisanship, as it had earlier petitioned against Justice Taiwo asking that the case be transferred to Akure, Ondo State.
” The new judge declined jurisdiction because he held that the EFCC’s case lacked merit and the case file was returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, who is yet to assign the case.
“The latest action by the EFCC is therefore premeditated, malicious, politically motivated, contemptuous and unconstitutional in all ramifications. It is another clear and undisguised evidence of gangsterism by an agency that derives its power from the constitution but uses it for political vendetta against the opposition.
” While we call on all men and women of conscience to call the EFCC and whoever is goading them along perilous path to order, we must warn that no harm must come the way of the illegally detained Ekiti State Government officials, who have health issues which they will be hampered to manage effectively in EFCC’s crushing detention environment.
“Not obeying court orders is not the hallmark of democracy, but a virtue of anti-democratic agents. Colonel Dasuki Sambo, former National Security Adviser is still being held despite numerous court orders to the contrary. Ibrahim el-Zakyzaky has been locked up unduly for months, this is not the democracy we fought to enthrone in Nigeria,” he said.
The governor stressed that it was not a coincidence that those officials were arrested while he was declaring his intention to contest the presidential election, but noted that such gimmicks would not deter him from pursuing his ambition.
“My ambition to contest the presidential election in 2019 is God’s project and no human effort can thwart it. Democracy allows for people to aspire to occupy public offices and I have not breached any law doing that. Those who think they can get to me by harassing my aides and supporters would soon hit a dead end,” he noted.
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Presidential ambition: ‘Fayose is cantankerous, bent on destroying PDP’– Kashamu
The Senator representing Ogun East, Senator Buruji Kashamu, Thursday rubbished the 2019 presidential ambition of Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose describing the governor as a confusionist.
Kashamu also labelled Fayose as the number one destroyer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The lawmaker, who reacted to Fayose’s presidential campaign launch in Abuja, noted that the governor was only showing Nigerians how unreliable he is.
He described as a huge joke Fayose’s presidential ambition insisting that “I tell you Fayose is not bidding for any presidential position come 2019.”
Kashamu said: “He is a confusionist and number one destroyer of the party because how on earth would somebody who agreed with other party chieftains that the presidential ticket of the party for 2019 should be zoned to the North, now turn around to start campaigning for the same ticket as a Southerner and particularly as a South westerner to the detriment of the National Chairmanship ticket of the party already zoned to the area.
“Lovers of our great party and politically minded Nigerians generally, should by this action of Fayose see him as the number one destroyer of the party and the most cantankerous politician in the polity who can at any time abuse anybody and go against agreed plans at any time.
“I believe that am not the only one disturbed by Fayose’s agbero brand of politics but all political stakeholders in the land including those who followed him from Ekiti to grace his campaign launch because everybody knows that he is going nowhere come 2019 but just exercising his right in a funny way as a joker.”
Kashamu slammed the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party under the leadership of Senator Ahmed Makarfi for allegedly issuing him query unreasonably.
The lawmaker wondered why he was accused of instigating crisis in the Ogun State chapter of the party when he was in Abuja as a Senator representing the good people of Ogun East Senatorial District.
He claimed that the query served him by the party which has been responded to has no substance but a pure mischief and a product of malice.
He claimed that Makarfi who heads the party as National Chairman, Caretaker Committee, wanted to corner the 2019 presidential ticket of the party.
He also accused Makarfi of working surreptitiously to ease out those he felt could challenge him.
He said, “In fact, the December convention of the party may not hold due to Makarfi’s ambition. He is a chameleon pretending to have the interest of the party at heart but secretly executing his own personal agenda.”
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You can’t run for president in 2019, Ex-PDP chair, Nwodo tells Fayose
A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Okwesilieze Nwodo, says Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, cannot contest in the party’s primary poll for 2019 presidential election.
He stated this on Thursday in Abuja shortly after Fayose’s formal declaration of his intention to contest for the position of president of Nigeria in 2019 on PDP’s platform.
Nwodo, a former National Chairman of the PDP, told newsmen that party’s ideology forbade Mr. Fayose and other members from the South from contesting in the presidential race in 2019.
He said that the ideology would be followed to the letter in spite the governor’s declaration.
“Fayose cannot run and I will tell you my reason,” he said.
“When we formed PDP, the first battle we fought and won as a party was to zone the presidency to the South.
“Those of us from the south made a case because in the first republic, prime minister was from the North; in the second republic, the president was from the North, and in the third republic, a southerner won and the election was annulled.
“There was no way we could go back to the south and say let’s elect a northerner again without giving the south a slot.
“A decision was taken that the presidency should come from the south and the chairman of the party to come from the north.
“That was how Solomon Lar became the chairman of PDP and secretary was zoned to the south; that was how I became the first secretary of the party.”
Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu State, said that the party would take a decision to ensure that its constitution and ordinances were respected.
He explained that those who tried it in the past failed to achieve their aim.
He said, “For example, late Abubakar Rimi, former Governor of Kano State paid for a form and wanted to run.
“Then I was the national secretary, I returned his cheque and informed him that the party had taken a decision that the presidential candidate could only come from southern Nigeria.
“When we went to the Convention in Jos, he went to the venue and started to campaign without having a form because we didn’t give him.
“We had to get some party leaders around to go and counsel him; we didn’t want security agencies to manhandle or embarrass him and good counsel prevailed and he stepped down.
“That was what PDP did and now we did not only zone the presidency to the north, we have re-emphasised at every opportunity we had that the zoning will take place.
“So, the party will not collect expression of interest money from anybody else who is not from the North and will not issue him a nomination form to contest; no, we will not do that.’’
However, TheNewsGuru.com reports that Fayose had in a letter to PDP leaders insisted that his ambition to be president was without prejudice to the party’s position, adding that it was in the interest of the party and Nigeria.