The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State yesterday said Governor Ayo Fayose is capable of paying at least four months’ salaries to workers from the arrears owed them out of the latest N4.732 billion allocation received from the Federal Government.
The APC advised Governor Fayose to spend the latest federal allocation on workers’ salaries and pensioners’ entitlements.
The party added that the latest opportunity should not be abused and frittered away.
In a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, the main opposition party in Ekiti said the release of N4.732 billion offered an opportunity to bring relief to workers and pensioners through payment of their entitlements.
The statement read in part: “The people of the state know the wage bill of the state is not up to N2.6 billion as always claimed by Fayose.
“Since he claims to be a friend of the masses, Fayose should be honest with Ekiti people and with God now that he has been exposed by adding the N4.7 billion state allocation to the local government allocation, which is almost the same amount.
“It is gratifying that the Federal Government announced the July allocations to the 36 states, giving details of figure each of the states receives.
“Governor Fayose is fond of distorting facts about allocations to the state and on several occasions, lying that the state receives barely N500 million after deductions.
“Now that the Federal Government has announced that the July allocation to Ekiti State is N4.732 billion after deductions and separate from the local government allocation, Ekiti people can no longer be deceived that the state received peanut in July as an excuse for failure to pay salary”.
It also called on the state governor to release “other peanuts” he refused to use to pay salary in the past and add it to the fresh allocation to pay workers and dying pensioners.
While calling on Fayose to demonstrate that he is a friend of workers as he claims to be, the Ekiti APC urged him to release alleged stolen funds, including the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG) cash traced to his accounts, to pay workers.
Olatunbosun added: “The EFCC has made mind-boggling revelations on the various sums of public cash traced to the accounts of the governor, including kickbacks from contractors and multi-million naira mansions in Lagos and Abuja.
“As a friend of the masses and workers, this is the time to surrender the proceeds of sales of such illegal properties to help his friends in need over inability to pay their salaries.
“Only two weeks ago, Fayose received another N1.3 billion Budget Support Fund from the Federal Government to pay salary. This is in addition to the July state and local government allocation totaling over N9 billion naira.
“With this, there is no excuse for shortage of funds to pay salaries of the suffering Ekiti workers, who are at the receiving end of crooked financial regulations in the state with its adverse consequences on the economy of Ekiti as a civil service state.
“We will do everything under the law to make Fayose use the money to pay workers’ salary and pensioners’ allowances”.