The Ekiti state Governor, Ayo Fayose, has described the
newly-built Government House in the state as a show of wickedness to the people
of the state by the immediate past Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
Fayose, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant,
Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the new Government
House was an act of insensitivity to the plight of Ekiti state people, many of
whom cannot afford to feed once in a day.
Speaking with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, Olayinka said
no progressive-minded Ekiti state indigene would see the out-of-this-world
luxury provided with over N3.3 billion borrowed funds for Fayemi, his wife and
children and will not weep for the state and its people.
Olayinka, who said Fayose was alarmed at the waste of Ekiti
state resources to provide comfort for a single family, out of the thousands of
households in the state, added: “The governor would have preferred to sell out
the property and use the funds to provide basic amenities and employment
opportunities for the people.”
“It is simply wicked for a governor to be more interested in
this manner of ostentatious comfort at the expense of the people. The bed on
which Fayemi slept before he left government alone costs over N30 million; that
of his wife costs over N20 million!
“Between Fayemi and his wife, what was spent on their
bedrooms, toilets and bathrooms will be in the region of N100 million”, he
alleged.
“How can a responsible government use borrowed fund to
provide this kind of luxury for the governor and his family alone in a state
where a lot of people cannot afford to feed once in a day?
“People should ask the outgone governor what was really wrong
with the abandoned Governor’s Lodge used by his (Fayemi) predecessors?
“Shouldn’t such funds expended on the hilltop edifice have
been used to resuscitate the moribund textile factory in Ado-Ekiti that was
turned to lock-up shops to provide employment for our teeming unemployed
youths?
“Also, was Fayemi living in that manner of opulence before he
became governor?
While reiterating Governor Fayose’s avowed commitment to the
masses, Olayinka said: “Left for Governor Fayose, he won’t use that
aristocratic government house because it is a symbol of oppression in itself.
“He will prefer to live where Ekiti people can easily see
him, touch him, eat with him and discuss the progress of the state together.
“But abandoning it would amount to colossal waste of public
funds.
“Let me assure you Governor Fayose will not hide himself from
the masses.”
Source: People’s Daily
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