The Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele
Fayose, on Wednesday visited the headquarters of the ministry of finance
and demanded the release of the state’s N1.1bn budget support facility
for the month of January.
Fayose visited the ministry and
requested to see the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, over the
non-payment of the allocation but was told that the finance minister was
at the Presidential villa attending the weekly Federal Executive
Council meeting.
Addressing journalists at the ministry, he claimed that Ekiti was the only state that had yet to receive its January allocation.
The
governor said that he received a text message from the Central Bank of
Nigeria recently that the money had been paid only to be informed again
by the apex bank that Ekiti was not included on the list of of payments.
This,
according to him, is unacceptable as many workers in the state are
currently suffering the negative impact of the delay in releasing the
fund.
He said, “I believe I should do a follow up today
(Wednesday) to meet with the minister of finance for an update, but she
actually called me on Tuesday that she just got back but will look into
it today (Wednesday) and have it resolved as soon as possible.
“You
will however appreciate that Ekiti civil servants are restive, having
spent Christmas and there is no money in January, obviously there will
be challenges.
“By the time I got here, the minister has already
gone for the Federal Executive Council meeting, but I met the Special
Adviser, who assured me that the matter will be resolved when the
minister is back.
“What we are talking about is a part of the
monthly allocation and the budget support which is about N1.1bn that
have not been paid.
“I believe this should be done immediately
and I want to believe also that it was a mix-up and not political. But
if it is political, they will have a lot of questions to answer (about)
why it should be so.
“If they want to fight Fayose, they should
fight Fayose, not the civil servants of Ekiti, but I appreciate her
promise to resolve the matter.”
The governor said if the promise
of the finance minister is not quickly implemented, he would have no
other option but to continue to raise the alarm by bringing the issue
back to the public domain.
He said, “It is only Ekiti that is
involved and this is the second time, that explains why I was suspicious
and have to act fast.
“I got a text from the Central Bank of
Nigeia that the money has been paid and later I learnt that there is a
withdrawal of that instruction that Ekiti was not included in the list
out of the entire Federation.
“So, naturally I have to be and
when it happened that it was just Ekiti State alone, I have to be
suspicious. The minister has given me her word, at her level as a
minister, that is good enough.
“If the promise of the minister to
resolve this issue as quickly as possible is not adhere to, I will have
to bring it back to the public domain.
“We are all in the court
of the public opinion where the public is able to judge whether justice
is served at all times. Governance is beyond all of us but I want to
believe that they will do it.”
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