January 2017.
Fayose visited
the ministry and requested to see the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun,
over the non-payment of the allocation but was told that the finance minister
was at the Presidential villa attending the weekly Federal Executive Council
meeting.
Addressing
journalists at the ministry, Fayose said it is disturbing that Ekiti was the
only state that had yet to receive its January allocation.
The governor
said that he received a text message from the Central Bank of Nigeria recently
that the money had been paid only to be informed again by the apex bank that
Ekiti was not included on the list of payments.
This,
according to him, is unacceptable as many workers in the state are currently
suffering the negative impact of the delay in releasing the fund.
He said, “I
believe I should do a follow up today (Wednesday) to meet with the minister of
finance for an update, but she actually called me on Tuesday that she just got
back but will look into it today (Wednesday) and have it resolved as soon as
possible.
“You will
however appreciate that Ekiti civil servants are restive, having spent
Christmas and there is no money in January, obviously there will be challenges.
“By the time I
got here, the minister has already gone for the Federal Executive Council
meeting, but I met the Special Adviser, who assured me that the matter will be
resolved when the minister is back.
“What we are
talking about is a part of the monthly allocation and the budget support which
is about N1.1bn that have not been paid.
“I believe
this should be done immediately and I want to believe also that it was a mix-up
and not political. But if it is political, they will have a lot of questions to
answer [on] why it should be so.
“If they want
to fight Fayose, they should fight Fayose, not the civil servants of Ekiti, but
I appreciate her promise to resolve the matter.”
The governor
said if the promise of the finance minister is not quickly implemented, he
would have no other option but to continue to raise the alarm by bringing the issue
back to the public domain.
He said, “It
is only Ekiti that is involved and this is the second time, that explains why I
was suspicious and have to act fast."
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