Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose yesterday said the Federal Government has started witch-hunting him for criticizing its alleged unwholesome policies.
He decried failure of the Federal Government to pay the Federal Allocation and Budget support for the month of January for the state.
Governor Fayose also alleged that the FG was using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to frustrate his on-going projects in the state through alleged frivolous petitions.
This is just as the state’s Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ade Adesanmi, urged the FG to desist from deploying alleged political machinations to fight their perceived enemies at the expense of innocent civil servants who have families, children and sundry responsibilities to cater for.
In a press briefing at the government House, Ado-Ekiti, state capital, governor Fayose said: “It is unavoidably necessary to bring to the public domain the current harrassment, oppression and intimidation of my office and the good people of Ekiti State by the Federal Government because of my stand on national issues.
“In the last three, four weeks, after the Federal Allocation Committee meeting, it is sad that Ekiti Federal Allocation for january has not been released.
Secondly, the budget support, for which we signed an ISPO for all states in Nigeria, Ekiti remains the only state not paid for the month of January. And it seems this is deliberate because up till now, no excuse or explanation has been given.
Secondly, the budget support, for which we signed an ISPO for all states in Nigeria, Ekiti remains the only state not paid for the month of January. And it seems this is deliberate because up till now, no excuse or explanation has been given.
“I have written to the Federal Ministry of finance, my Commissioner has been there, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria, nobody is ready to talk to us.
“We contacted the Honourable minister, all the directors at the Ministry of finance everybody is shying away from talking to us for the last 10 days now.
“It is important to note that the allocation and budget support from Abuja is our legitimate right. We have done the needful on our part and nobody from their end has queried the process.
“I don’t know why the average civil servant in Ekiti State should be made to suffer because of politics, it is not my salary, it is the salary of the Ekiti civil servants.
“Doing this in the name of politics and to destabilize this state is not in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He recalled that unpopular attempt to intimidate him politically by withholding allocation meant for the state’s civil servants as was done by former President Olusegun Obasanjo but that it ended futility.
He said: “I’m reminding them and speaking to Nigerians that the statutory allocation for Local governments in Lagos State was stopped then by the Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjon and it was fought until the money was paid back. I think we have gone past that kind of episode.”
Fayose, therefore, appealed to the FG to urgently release funds meant for the suffering workers in Ekiti.
“I want to appeal to the Federal Government, I want to appeal to the ministry of finance not to allow themselves to be used to oppress and suffer the civil servants in Ekiti.
“This state has been running peacefully well supporting Governor Fayose. If this is a political attempt to cause chaos in the state, it will not stand. I will not also be cowed from saying the truth.”
Decrying also that the FG was allegedly using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to intimidate contractors working on capital projects in the state, he said: “it is saddening that the EFCC wrote letters to all the contractors in Ekiti in an administration that is on-going, harrassing and intimmidating them all in an attempt to frustrate these key projects of my administration, knowing fully well that when all these projects are completed the APC led government at the centre and in the state would not be able to have an headway in 2018 election in the state.”
Governor Fayose who reterated his critical stand against the FG in spite of the alleged political witchhunt, said: “I am calling on the general public and all people clear conscience, we cannot all be in the same boat.
“We all remember that it is Ayo Fayose and Ekiti’s turn today, it may be another person’s turn tomorrow. We will take all necessary steps to get justice and to have this statutory allocation as it our right.”
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