Ekiti youths group, under the aegis of Ekiti Youth Vanguard, has lampooned the leadership of the state House of Assembly over call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate former Governor Kayode Fayemi over an alleged N40 billion fraud.
The group described the move as a diversionary tactic by Governor Ayodele Fayose and “his men in the House of Assembly” to divert the attention of Ekiti people from the “mindless looting of the state treasury by Fayose’s administration while workers remain unpaid for six months”.
The House of Assembly had, on Monday, passed a resolution giving an eight-day ultimatum to the anti-graft agency to investigate allegation of N40b fraud against the former governor.
But in a statement in Ado-Ekiti by its Coordinator, Charles Fakunle, the group faulted the action, describing the lawmakers as “shameless attention-seekers and busy bodies” who had failed in their duties of providing quality and robust legislature for making good laws and oversight functions for which they were elected by the people.
Regretting that the Assembly men had allegedly chosen to make themselves “partners in crime with the Executive arm of government”, the group urged the Assembly members to keep their mouths shut if they could not live up to their responsibility as responsible representatives of Ekiti people.
“The Assembly men headed by Pastor Kola Oluwawole have been a huge disaster over the master-slave relationship they have with Governor Fayose.
“Besides colluding with the governor to destroy the tenets of democracy and governance, they have also been irresponsible in the discharge of their responsibilities, choosing to be more of a rubber-stamp by passing every bill sent to them by the governor without proper scrutiny and acting as Fayose’s attack dogs when the governor is asked to be accountable in running the government.
“More annoyingly, they watch helplessly as Fayose diverts Ekiti money illegally to purposes not appropriated in the budget, including doing nothing on the internally generated revenue incomes allegedly kept in private accounts not known to the state’s financial system,” the statement explained.
The group alleged that because the House of Assembly worked in cahoots with the governor to divert the first bailout package received by the state, members could not say anything when workers protested against failure to use the bailout for the purpose it was approved by the Federal Government.
“The bailout that Fayose diverted was specifically for the payment of salaries, pensions, gratuities and severance packages of former political office holders, but because these questionable characters in the Assembly were accomplices in the illegal funds diversion scheme, they kept quiet only to find their voices now to accuse others of corrupt practices even when they are more guilty of same,” the group said.
The statement added: “It is even more disgusting that such accusation of fraud against Fayemi could be coming from Fayose and his men who have got all the opportunities in the world to prove their case against the former governor but refused to do so until now when it has become crystal clear to Ekiti people that Fayose is determined to play smart with them with the reckless diversion of bailout cash resulting in salary payment default and failure to keep campaign promises.
“We wonder why it took the assembly members this long to coincide with the time Ekiti people are asking Fayose to account for the about N20b bailout he took before they suddenly realised that they must ask EFCC to probe Fayemi, all this in an attempt to divert Ekiti people’s attention from criminal diversion of their money to the private use of government’s leaders.
“While we are not holding brief for Fayemi, who we know as a public official ought to be accountable for everything done under his watch, we find it rather curious, annoying and nauseating that Governor Fayose after more than two years in the saddle is still making Fayemi an issue over debts and failure to pay salaries.
“For more than two years, Fayose did not look into the books that Fayemi handed to him in his handover notes, but now Fayose is making inflammatory statements and baseless allegations that lack logic.
“For Instance, when Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State accused his predecessor of corruption, he did not try him in the media, neither did he wait for the EFCC to investigate him; he rather set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry on his assumption of office to looked into the books and the panel came out with their findings and recommendations.
“This is what we had expected Fayose and his men to do instead of wailing endlessly and making baseless accusations and smear campaigns in the media to divert attention for political advantage.”
The group urged the House of Assembly members to devote their energies to lawmaking and oversight functions, instead of acting as partners in alleged looting of the state to the advantage of the governor while the people suffered.
“The lawmakers that are now acting Fayose’s script said nothing when news broke that alleged Fayose’s mistress made away with N75m out of Ekiti meagre resources, including keeping quiet when the governor’s aides stole $50,000 in the Government House because the governor has more than enough of Ekiti money in his private purse,” the group said.
The statement admonished the Assembly members to desist from being used by Fayose to destroy the state and fight imaginary political enemies.