Opposition to TSA: Fayose won’t go unpunished – APC
By; Oladele Adedayo, Ado-Ekiti.
The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has threatened that Governor Ayo Fayose’s opposition to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the Federal Government will definitely earn him sanction saying his stance smacks of deliberate ploy to conceal fraud.
The Party said the governor vowing never to attend the TSA meeting slated for Abuja for all state governors is impunity taken too far and a smokescreen to cover up his alleged fraudulent financial transactions so far in the state.
“We wish to draw the attention of Governor Fayose to the fact that Ekiti State cannot be an island in the country by refusing to abide by the financial regulations of the Federal Government, failure of which the state can be penalised. He will surely be punished for his demeanour and plethora of unguarded utterances unbecoming of any reasonable person. He is living large and not accountable to anyone.
“Fayose’s attitude will cause dire consequences on the hapless citizens of the state as any financial sanction on the state will have a negative effect on the ordinary people on the street who are already traumatised through harsh taxation by his relentless drive for revenue”.
APC Publicity Secretary in Ekiti state,Taiwo Olatunbosun who affirmed this in a statement in Ado-Ekiti, described Fayose’s “recalcitrant attitude” to a policy with potential to save the country from national malaise of corruption as dangerous and reckless behaviour from a governor averse to accountability in financial matters and who has taken impunity as important element of governance.
“TSA is aimed at ensuring that all government earnings are paid into a single account to ensure accountability and check fraud unlike in the past where government accounts were scattered in many banks which encouraged frauds.
“Many of the government accounts were used to perpetrate frauds as the accounts were hidden by fraudulent officials.
“For a governor who describes himself as a friend of the poor to oppose a policy that will make the same poor people enjoy the benefits of transparent governance and a confirmation of allegations of fraud against the governor in his handling of financial issues.
“We can now see the reason why the governor has opened several channels of revenue collections to be paid into several phony accounts that revenue collection officers are describing as opaque,” Olatunbosun explained.
Describing Fayose as a man that cannot survive in a society where the law works, the APC spokesman said Ekiti people were not surprised that the governor was kicking against the policy that ensured transparency and accountability.
“Fayose believes that Ekiti State government treasury is his personal purse and so he is not expected to be accountable to anybody. This explains why he has refused to tell Ekiti people what he has done with all the monies he had received from the Federation Account in the last 13 months of assumption of office.
“Fayose has deliberately abandoned many beneficial projects of his predecessor because such projects would not enrich his pocket while those he embarked upon like substandard road projects are those that would make him rip off the state as he did during his first tenure. The roads he is constructing now are like the same he did before by putting asphalt on sand which will collapse in no time.
“The governor has no explanation to Ekiti people on how he spent N22b refund on federal road projects, the N2b ecological fund, several billions of naira statutory allocation to the state and LGAs and N9.1 bailout fund, among others.
“Fayose has not said anything about the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state, which he has embarked upon with an aggressive drive thereby bringing untold hardship on the citizens. What of the school fees he introduced in primary and secondary schools, including high fees in tertiary institutions?” Olatunbosun queried.
He alleged that the government ran several fictitious accounts on the alleged instructions of the governor, saying this was a practice that must not go unchallenged by the people who would be ultimate beneficiaries of TSA policy being promoted by the Federal Government.
“Fayose’s attempt to mislead the public by referring to the TSA as a fraud should be ignored by well meaning Nigerians. The bogus amount of N25 billion mentioned by Fayose as the commission received by a company who moved the fund to a single account on behalf of the Federal Government is not correct. The truth of the matter is that the one percent commission received by the company is cheaper than the commission previously charged and it is shared by the company, the commercial banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria and this is backed by law” he explained.
He added:”Fayose has gone his usual way of blackmail to cover his own fraudulent actions and motives. Up till now, he has refused to pay the severance benefits of former political office holders from the bailout fund he collected eight weeks ago.
“We call on all Ekiti citizens home and abroad to call Mr. Fayose to order to stop his unnecessary belligerent attitude to the Federal Government simply because he belongs to the opposition. Fayose is a pathological liar feeding fat on the commonwealth of the state at the expense of the common man.
“Once again, we call on the EFCC, the CBN and ICPC to beam their searchlights on Ekiti State’s various fictitious accounts and probe why Fayose has refused to pay past political appointees their severance benefits from the bailout fund.
“We are confident that the findings of these agencies will reveal the reason why Fayose is opposed to the TSA policy,” Olatunbosun concluded.
