The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked Governor Ayodele Fayose to stop his heartless cheating of the state indigent people, saying the short changing of beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) instrument to the tune of N70, 000 is callousness taken too far.
APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that payment of N30,000 to beneficiaries was a far cry from the 100,000 approved for each of them by MDGs office, regretting that a governor who pretends to be friend of the poor could cheat them with a whopping 70,000 out of N100,000.
“The beneficiaries were paid N30, 000 by Governor Fayose instead of the statutory N100, 000 approved for them and already paid into the bank by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Office at the Federal level.
“We wonder why Fayose will always deny Ekiti people their entitlements. The conditional cash transfer programme was a programme which started during the Fayemi administration and the present beneficiaries were selected over a year ago during which they benefitted to the tune of N5, 000 per month in addition to provision of a mobile telephone to each of them.
“The last stage of the programme is for them to be paid N100, 000 each as exit fund to start their businesses, but Mr. Fayose has decided to pay them only N30, 000 while helping himself with the remaining N70, 000,” Olatubosun explained.
He described the governor’s action as callous, scandalous and heartless, adding that the money was meant to alleviate the sufferings of vulnerable women by the MDGs which had already paid the money in full as confirmed by impeccable sources at the domiciled bank.
“We had long suspected that Mr. Fayose would end up messing the programme which he inherited from his predecessor because of his unconscionable appetite for wealth acquisition and we have been proven right. What will Mr. Fayose do with the remaining N70, 000 that he has withheld? “Why can’t he pay the hapless women their entitlements in full? Must he shortchange almost everybody when it comes to money matters? This is how Mr. Fayose reduced the feeding allowance of the children in the School for the Handicapped by a whopping 60 percent, yet he will call himself friend of the poor,” Olatubosun lamented.
He expressed dismay over the governor’s unquenchable thirst to make money from anything under the sun, recalling yesterday media reports alleging that the governor spent N2billion Ecological Fund on election.
He added that it was evident that the governor asked PDP candidates to contribute money to prosecute the elections after collecting another N250 million from his party, according to the party’s spokesman in media reports.
The APC spokesman urged the MDGS at the Federal level to investigate this alleged fraud, apply appropriate sanctions and make sure the governor was made to pay the beneficiaries the balance of N70 000.
”It is an irony that Fayose still finds it difficult to pay workers salary despite all the money he has been mopping up through thousands of jobs cuts, projects cancellations, reductions in allowances and running grants to workers, refusal to fund security agencies and collection of N22 billion refunds on federal projects executed by former Governor Kayode Fayemi since he assumed office .
“Ekiti people must begin to ask what he is doing with all these funds. Perhaps those who say Fayose is paying back those who helped him secure his victory on June 21 governorship elections may be right after all,” Olatubosun concluded.