A witness, who works in the Funds Management Department in the Office of Accountant General, appearing Monday, before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, probing the handling of Ekiti’s finances between October 2010 and October 2014, has revealed that the total amount of debt left behind by the administration of former Governor Kayode Fayemi was N49 billion.

The testimony (The witness: Kehinde Odunayo Victor):

• He contradicted the claims of the incumbent governor, Ayodele Fayose who said Mr Fayemi left a N89 billion debt.
• Mr Victor said out of the N49 billion, N25 billion was taken as bond from the Capital Market while N24 billion was taken as loans from ten commercial banks.
• In a document presented (Exhibit A13), Fayemi has repaid  N42,691,410,210.37 (42.6 billion) out of the debt before he left.
• According to Kehinde “as at the time Fayemi left office in 2014, that debt incurred from outstanding workers’ emoluments, comprising pensions, subventions to schools, among others was N13, 819, 928,727,  92.”
• “Total Deductions from FAAC allocations in the time under review under the last administration was N18, 684, 785, 314, 75 was allegedly deducted in 48 months.
• He told the panel that N163, 267,220, 48; 07 billion statutory allocations were received by the administration in four years.
• The Panel also heard that the former governor allegedly made N18 billion unremitted deductions from the allocations received within the period in review.

Fayemi had gone to court to challenge the composition of the panel members of which he described as “cronies of Fayose and sympathisers of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who cannot be trusted to do justice.”

No lawyer represented Fayemi at the proceeding but two lawyers, Ibrahim Olanrewaju and Adeoye Aribasoye told the panel that they were in court as “observers.”

Another witness, Arogundade Victor Adeyinka, who works at the state Ministry of Finance, tendered a document that indicated how the N25 billion bond was expended.

According to him, the breakdown of the N20 billion first tranche of the bond indicated that “a sum of N468 million was to be spent on Ero Dam, Ureje Dam, N500m, building of the school of Agriculture, N750m, Road Construction, N2.6 building of Lagos Liaison office, N500m, building of modern market in Ado Ekiti, N2b, building of new government house, N633m, new governor’s office, N400m, Ikogosi Warm Spring, N1.5b, Civic Centre, N1 billion, totaling N19.3 billion.”

“The N5b second tranche of the bond was broken down thus: construction of Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji road, N894m, Ikole-Ijesa Isu road, N1.34b, Ewu Bridge, N20m, State Pavilion, N1.553b and Ire Resuscitation of Ire Burnt Brick,  N966m, totaling N4.84b”, the documented said.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram