The Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has
described the newly built Government House
in the state as a show of wickedness to the
people of the state by the immediate past
Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
Fayose, in a statement by his Special Assistant
Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, said the new government house was
an act of insensitivity to the plight of Ekiti
State people, many of whom cannot afford to
feed once in a day.
Speaking with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on
Monday, Olayinka said no progressive minded
Ekiti State person would see the out-of-this-
world luxury provided with over N3.3 billion
borrowed fund for Fayemi, his wife and
children and will not weep for the state and
its people.
Olayinka, who said Fayose was alarmed at the
waste of Ekiti State resources to provide
comfort for a single family out of the
thousands of households in the state, added:
“The governor would have preferred to sell
out the property and use the fund to provide
basic amenities and employment opportunities
for the people.”
He disclosed that Fayemi was planning to buy
a helicopter if he had returned to office for a
second term, adding: “The plan was for
Fayemi to run government from the comfort
of Oke-Ayoba Government House and move
from there to anywhere he wanted without
the people seeing him.
“That’s also the reason he (Fayemi) refused to
renovate the Governor’s Office, leaving it in a
state of disrepair because he knew that he
was not going to use the office during his
second term.
“Also, contract for the maintenance of the
property was already awarded for N150
million per annum.
“When we visited the Government House for
the first time yesterday, Mr. Governor was
like: how I wish I can sell off this place or
turn it to commercial use.
“It is simply wicked for a governor to be more
interested in this manner of ostentatious
comfort at the expense of the people.
“The bed on which Fayemi slept before he left
government alone costs over N30 million!
“That of his wife costs over N20 million!
“Between Fayemi and his wife, what was
spent on their bedrooms, toilets and
bathrooms will be in the region of N100
million.
“How can a responsible government use
borrowed fund to provide this kind of luxury
for the governor and his family alone in a
state where a lot of people cannot afford to
feed once in a day?
“People should ask the outgone governor what
was really wrong with the abandoned
governor’s lodge used by his (Fayemi)
predecessors?
“Shouldn’t such funds expended on the hilltop
edifice have been used to resuscitate the
moribund textile factory in Ado-Ekiti that was
turned to lock-up shops to provide
employments for our teeming unemployed
youths?
“Also, was Fayemi living in that manner of
opulence before he became governor?
“Was he sleeping on a body-massaging bed
and bathing in an electric controlled Jacuzzi?
“Here is Fayemi, who could not pay workers
salary, owing them two months’ salary before
he left.
“A Fayemi, who out of sheer wickedness
refused to pay pensioners N2.4 billion pension
and gratuities, N400 million workers leave
bonus, N700 million subventions to parastatals
and tertiary institutions and remit N2.4 billion
four months cooperative society’s deductions
from workers salary, preferring to use over N3
billion borrowed fund to provide luxury for
himself, his wife and children alone.
“This is wickedness!
“Most importantly, did our late sage, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, whom Fayemi and his so-
called progressives claim as their role-model,
live in any government house, not to talk of
building an Emperor-like house for himself?
“Did late Michael Adekunle Ajasin build a
monarchical government house for himself?
“Did Baba Lateef Jakande live in any
government house?
“These are great Yoruba sons, whose recorded
landmark achievements as Premier of the old
Western Region and governors of Lagos State
and the old Ondo State respectively.
“The duo of Ajasin and Jakande were able to
impact tremendously on their states because
they would not like to waste public fund to
provide luxury for themselves.”
While reiterating Governor Fayose’s avowed
commitment to the masses, Olayinka said:
“Left for Governor Fayose, he won’t use that
aristocratic government house because it is a
symbol of oppression in itself.
“He will prefer to live where Ekiti people can
easily see him, touch him, eat with him and
discuss the progress of the state together.
“But abandoning it would amount to colossal
waste of public funds.
“Let me assure you Governor Fayose will not
hide himself from the masses.”
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