APC faults Fayose’s aide’s claim over streetlight fuel cost

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has criticised the state Commissioner For Public Utilities, Deji Adesua, for faulting a group which accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of claiming that he spent N210 million monthly to power streetlights in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
The group few days ago quoted the state Accountant General Report as saying that the government spent N210 million monthly to power streetlights in the state capital.
It said such figure was fraudulently overbloated, as streetlight was available for only three hours daily.
The party praised the group for raising the alarm over the alleged fraud, even as it also commended the State Accountant General for letting the public know about the overbloated figure that the governor had been passing to the government over fuel supply claim.
The party said the figure of N210 million quoted by the group and the Accountant General was the same figure Fayose quoted in his October 2015 media chat that rankled the residents who expressed shock over such monthly figure though streetlight was only available from 7pm to 10pm everyday.
A statement by the APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, insisted that the group accusing Fayose of alleged fraud was right in their claim, stressing that the governor himself quoted the same figure in his October media chat to the bewilderment of Ekiti State people.
Olatunbosun said: “I don’t know what the commissioner is denying here after the governor himself quoted N210m monthly fuel supply to power streetlights during his media chat.
“We recollect that fuel marketers in NUPENG wrote a letter to Fayose and security agencies about unpaid fuel supply money, warning about the consequences of stopping fuel supply, including panic buying and associated risks, if the governor failed to pay fuel supply debts.
“We also recall that same letter by the marketers referred to the August 12, 2015 letter, which they said was a reminder to the governor to pay up to save their members from banks’ legal action arising from failure to pay the bank loans they took to supply diesel to the state government.
“The said letter copied to the State Director of DSS and Commissioner of Police read in part: ‘We wish to inform you that despite all our efforts to let Mr Governor see the plight and agony of our members because of this debt, it is unfortunate that all our pleas, demands and requests for payment have not yielded any positive turn-out, rather he (the governor) has turned a deaf ear to them’.”
The APC spokesman said the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers August 12, 2015 letter to the governor listed three suppliers being owed N71,094,750.00 by the government, explaining that failure to accede to NUPENG’s plea was responsible for October fuel scarcity in the state.
Stressing that the cost of diesel to power streetlights daily was in the range of N43,000 per day and not N7 million the governor is claiming in the public, Olatunbosun explained: “By the records of the diesel suppliers, only 10,000 litres are supplied monthly to power the streetlights.
“A litre is N130, meaning N1.3m is spent on diesel every month. If you divide that amount into 30 days making a month, then a total of N43,300 is spent on diesel per day, but to the chagrin of the unsuspecting public, the governor is claiming N210m monthly for the supply of diesel, meaning that N7m is spent daily to power streetlights.”
Olatunbosun accused Fayose of alleged fraud in the over-bloated figures of N210 million he passed to the government, while actually paying N1.3 million as the monthly cost of streetlight fuel.