Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has solicited Nigerians’ support to stop governors from borrowing beyond their tenures.
Fayose in a tweet said he inherited more than N70 billion debt when he resumed office in which the state services with N1 billion monthly.
He noted that he owes civil servants arrears of four months’ salaries, as July’s was paid on Friday.
In reaction to the governor’s sanctimonious advice, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Fayose has borrowed N56 billion since coming to power on October 16, 2014.
In its latest DMO’s website published at the weekend, the office stated that the Fayose administration still had a fresh application of N25 billion in 2017 awaiting consideration.
The publication did not state how the funds were expended but they were believed to have been channeled to capital projects and payment of arrears of workers’ salaries.
Some of the capital projects being executed by the Fayose government include the Ado-Ekiti overhead bridge, new Governor’s Office, new High Court complex, among others.
The DMO disclosed the sources of fresh debts incurred by the Fayose regime to include summary of new loans, foreign loans and local bank loans.
A breakdown of the loan transactions between October 16, 2014 and December 2016 show that N25 billion request for 2017 was yet to be granted.
According to the document, the Fayose government renegotiated all outstanding loans as at December 31, 2014 for 20 years (till 2036) on behalf of Ekiti State in 2015.
For 2015 Ekiti State borrowed loans include new loans of N24, 811, 574, 926.00; foreign loans stood at N2,709,786,898.98 while local bank loans was N22,101,788,065.28.
In 2016, the summary of new loans was N31, 688, 638, 962.30 with foreign loans standing at N2, 705, 737, 050. 37 while local bank loans rose to N28, 982, 901, 911.93.
The summary of total loans in two years, that is, between January 2015 and December 2016 is N56, 500, 213, 924.56.
The summary of foreign loans is N5, 415, 523, 947.35 while summary of total bank loans incurred by the Fayose administration is N51, 084, 689, 977.21