The probe into the immediate past administration in Ekiti State under the leadership of Dr. Kayode Fayemi began yesterday, Monday, with the Judicial Panel of Enquiry receiving two witnesses brought forward by the counsel for the commission, Mr. Sunday Bamise.
The first witness who appeared before the panel, Mr. Kehinde Odunayo Victor, the Deputy Director, Funds Management, in the state’s Accountant General’s Office alongside the second witness, Mr. Arogundade Victor Adeyinka, the Director, State Finances in the state’s Ministry of Finance revealed that the state government received a total of N163,267,220,48.70 as allocations from the Federal Government between October 2010 and September 2014.
The witnesses while speaking before the panel also alleged that a total of N18 billion in deduction were not remitted by the government in the period between October 2010 and September 2014.
The first witness produced several documents to back his claim before the panel all of which were admitted as exhibits in the ongoing inquiry. The witnesses further pleaded with the panel to admit their testimonies given on July 26, 2017, as the financial position of the state between October 2010 and September 2014, when the former governor was in charge of state affairs
The panel further admitted the documents as Exhibits A 1 and B1 respectively.
The first witness, Kehinde, also tendered a document entitled: “Total Deductions from FAAC allocations in the time under review”, which revealed the total unremitted deductions made by the state in 48 months to be N18, 684, 785, 314, 75 48.
Revealing the state’s debt profile under Fayemi, the witness stated that Kayode Fayemi accrued a debt profile of N49 billion in loans and bonds, with N25b taken as a bond from the capital market and N24 billion as commercial loans from 10 banks. The document admitted as Exhibit A 13 revealed that Fayemi left the office with a loan repayment debt of N 42, 691, 410,210, 37.
Kehinde said: “as at the time Kayode Fayemi left office in 2014, that debt incurred from outstanding workers’ emoluments, comprising pensions, subventions to schools, among others was N13, 819,928,727,92.”
Arogundade also shed more light on how the money during Kayode Fayemi’s administration was spent while tendering a document that indicated how the former governor spent the N25 billion bonds collected.
He revealed that the first tranch of the money, N20 billion, was spent on was Ero Dam N468 million, Ureje Dam, N500m for the building of the school of Agriculture, N750m, Road Construction, N2.6billion, the building of Lagos Liaison office, N500m, the building of modern market in Ado Ekiti, N2b, the building of new government house, N633 million new governor’s office, N400m, Ikogosi Warm Spring, N1.5b, Civic Centre, N1 billion, totaling N19.3 billion.”
The document further added: “The N5b second tranch of the bond was broken down thus: construction of Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji road, N894m, Ikole-Ijesa Isu road, N1.34billion, Ewu Bridge, N20m, State Pavilion, N1.553b and Ire Resuscitation of Ire Burnt Brick, N966m, totaling N4.84b.”