‘Ekiti got N9.6bn out of N29bn bailout request’

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said the state got only N9.6bn out of the over N29bn it applied for in the Federal Government’s bailout loan for states.

The governor, who could not ascribe any reason for the shortfall, also said the 16 local governments in the state got N991m out of the N5.6bn they applied for.

Fayose spoke on Monday in Ikogosi-Ekiti during the opening ceremony of a two-day retreat for commissioners, permanent secretaries and heads of agencies.

The governor, according to a statement in Ado-Ekiti by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, said the clarification was necessary due to insinuations that the state government did not want to pay pension arrears and gratuities of retirees.

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“You people know that I don’t hide anything from you when allocations come. We applied for N29bn from the bailout fund. It is to cover the August and September 2014 salary arrears left by the Fayemi government – leave bonus, pensions, gratuities and others. But for reasons we don’t know yet, the Federal Government only approved N9.6bbn for salaries, leaving other issues.

“The 16 local governments applied for N5.6bn and we did all the necessary papers and presented them to the appropriate authorities, but only N991m was approved. We were later told by the Central Bank of Nigeria that about 14 states had a similar problem with the small amount approved for local governments.

“I have since written to them to rectify the situation and I hope they will do that quickly. It is only the Federal Government that can explain why they only approved one item, salary, out of the many items we presented to them on the workers’ issue. We have nothing to hide and people should appeal to the Federal Government to release the money in full. We know it is a loan that we will repay with nine per cent interest,” he said.

The governor also explained that the state had experienced a sharp decline in monthly allocations in recent time.

“Last month, we had a shortfall of N500m, and this month, we have a shortfall of N600m. The economy is dwindling and in bad shape and the Federal Government must do something about it urgently,” he noted.