Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the siphoning of Rivers State’s hard earned scarce funds to assist Mr. Ayo Fayose the outgoing Governor of Ekiti State in paying off her civil servants’ six months salaries in order to be seen as a caring Governor as dubious and unacceptable. The party maintains that as much as we care for the plight of the Ekiti State workers but to use Rivers State funds to pay their salaries while our own Governor Nyesom Wike have refused to pay several months of salaries and pension owed our civil servants and Pensioners is to us as robbing Peter in order to pay Paul.
The party notes with sadness that instead of Governor Fayose using the said fund to pay the civil servants salaries as pleaded for during his last vist to Rivers State to commission some of the projects already commissioned by Rt. Hon. chibuike Rotimi Amaechi during his tenure as the Governor of Rivers State, he is busy sharing the funds to his lackeys, court jesters and political jobbers. This act and strategy is not only devious, diabolical but immoral to the highest order and unacceptable to us as a political party.
“We are at a loss that Fayose who has been complaining of paucity of funds now has turned to “Santa Claus” distributing cash, rice, chicken in large sizes and other gifts to some selected Teachers, civil servant, traders to woo them to vote for his anointed candidate forgotten that these teachers have been asking and pleading to some of the Elders in the state, to help them beg Fayose to save them from starvation by paying their over six months salaries”, the party stated.
The party pleads with the people of Ekiti not to be deceived by Fayose as the Rivers State’s money he is misusing will be repaid immediately he leaves office no matter the odds. Ekiti people should refuse fail for the antics and pranks of Fayose and instead vote in Fayemi who has proved cacapility to take Ekiti to the new height expected of such a great State. “We should not forget that Fayose employed similar strategy during the 2014 general election to deceive our people and only succeeded to plunge the State into its present unfortunate state.
The party State Chairman, Hon. Ojukaye Flag Amachree who stated all these in a press statement he signed and issued on Monday in Port Harcourt the capital of Rivers State further reiterated that Governor Fayose does not mean well for the people of the state and that he really believes that the people of the state are stupid. If not, how does one explain this latest scam of not paying the statuory salaries owed the civil servants but prefer to share another State’s fund among his lackeys. “This is immoral and condmnable”.
The party cautious Fayose that 2018 is not 2014 when the army and state apparatus was used to install him as the Governor of Ekiti State against the will of the people of Ekiti State. We therefore warn him not to destabilise the peace of Ekiti State and refuse to be lured by Governor Nyesom Wike who has promised him to send in militants to help his candidate win the July, 14th election as we are very convinced that Security agencies as presently constituted are ever ready to ensure that their devious plot to use the militants will be resisted accordingly.
The party congratulates its candidate for the 14th July election, former Minister of Mines and Steel Development Dr. Kayode Fayemi in advance and pleads with him to bring back the sanity and standard that Ekiti State and her people are known and noted with.
“We are happy as a political party that with Fayemi, the party is bringing on board this time a message of consolation, hope and restoration. Consolation for the tolerance and perseverance of the last four years and hope for speedy restoration of abandoned programs, infrastructures, industries, values, projects and all the good things we lost due to some actions or inactions of the incumbent administration.”
The party pleads with the people of Ekiti to vote right considering our collective manifesto to turn the fortunes of Ekiti State and her people around as captured by Dr FAYMEI our candidate, “My quest to be governor again is born out of my sheer love and commitment to the well-being of my people. Each time I move round Ekiti, I see the pains on the faces of the 25,000 elderly persons who benefited from our social security scheme, 600 people who were employed into the peace corps, 10,000 volunteers who took N10,000 per month, among others but have been cut off from these safety nets by Fayose. The complaints and agonies of the beneficiaries of many abandoned physical projects and social welfare programs give me sleepless nights.
For instance instance, hundreds of boreholes in public schools are abandoned and not functional for lack of maintenance, over 40,000 people benefitting from our various social investment scheme have been put out to hang and dry. All that we did to better the lives of our people have been eroded in a lot of places, just go to Ikogosi, you will be sorry. Which sensible and reasonable person sees such laudable programs damaged/jettisoned and relax or go to sleep? These people have no clear understanding of how to run public offices.
The most painful aspect is workers welfare. This is painful because workers welfare was one of their major premise of campaign back then. Most of our tertiary institutions now run epileptic calendar because of incessant strike. No civil servant in Ekiti state has received salary this year. Ditto, for the pensioners, none of them have received pension in 2018 and gratuity have not been paid for years. Yet the government keeps lying to the public about the financial situation of the state. Things are tight generally in the country no doubt but the problem of Ekiti state is simply misplacement of priority”.
Rivers State APC Chairman,
02-07- 18
