Rumbles in Ekiti PDP, as Eleka, Ogunsakin accuse Fayose of ‘duping’ them of campaign funds
…Party members petition EFCC, allege ex-gov, wifemisappropriated funds
Loading ...The Peoples Democratic Party PDP governorship candidate in the Ekiti July 2018 poll, Professor Olusola Eleka and his deputy, Deji Ogunsakin are up in arms with their principal, former governor Ayo Fayose, accusing him of pocketing some of the funds meant for the campaign and election proper.
Fayose’s deputy, while in office Prof.Eleka and the party’s Deputy Governor candidate in the last governorship election in the state, Deji Ogunsakin were said to be miffed with their former boss, over his handling of the funds that were donated to them by party members and associates.
Their former boss was said to have impoverished his deputy by collecting campaign funds from associates on their behalf and diverting same to his pockets.
“‘Professor Eleka’s associates donated a lot of money to him, but Fayose collected them from him and pocketed the funds. PDP governors and the party donated about N9 billion for the party’s campaign, but Fayose was said to have received those funds on behalf of the aspirants, but refused to release the money to them.
“He also reduced the security votes of his deputy and when he complained, he told him that he was spending the votes on bill boards and campaign materials.
A usually impeccable source, also alleged that the former governor asked the deputy governor, Deji Ogunsakin to contribute to the campaign funds and forced him to sell his house in Lagos.
However, the former governor was said to have used third parties to purchase the house, without the knowledge of the owner.
In a related development, some members of the Ekiti State Chapter of the party have filed a petition with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accusing Fayose and his wife, of misappropriating party and state funds, running into billions of naira.
According to the contents of the petition, sighted by our correspondent in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, Mr Fayose dipped his hands into the party’s tills severally and diverted same into personal pockets.
Apart from certain sums of money said to have been deducted from local governments for the running of the party at various levels, which he was said to regularly pocket, there were also instances of manipulation of funds by the erstwhile governor, who the petitioners described as “callous, exploitative and sadistic”, which were itemized in the documents.
The documents revealed that several presidential candidates came to the state to meet party stakeholders in the state, but that the former governor collected money from them at every turn and refused to account for these monies.
Of particular mention was the last visit of former Vice President and the PDP presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The document reads in part; ” When Alhaji Atiku came, just like everybody else, he gave a tidy sum of money, but after the meeting, we all had to escort Alhaji Atiku to his vehicle, together with his entourage, but after he left, “Oshoko” (Fayose) just waved everybody off and asked his aides to move the bags containing the monies to his private quarters and he closed the door in everybody’s face.
“After the election, which our party lost to the APC, we decided to go to court and we briefed the party’s lawyers. We met with the lawyers inside the Government House and they asked for N500 Million. We shouldn’t be revealing these, but we have to let the whole world know, the kind of person he is. After all the stakeholders have left, he collected the cheque which have approved and issued to the lawyers.
” He issued another payment advice for the sum of N250 million, which was half of the sum approved by all the stakeholders. Which means that he pocketed N250 million, without informing anybody else.
“This translates into the fact that he shortchanged all the stakeholders, the lawyers and especially, the aspirants, by undermining the process, which might jeopardize our chances in the court.
” Fayose collected billions of Naira from the local government chairmen over four years, under the pretext of using the monies to run the party’s offices in the state, only to divert them into his personal pockets”, the petition said.
On the allegations against the ex- governor’s wife, Mrs Feyisitan Fayose, the stakeholders said that, despite the facade put up at all times by the spouse of the former governor, as a Bible-carrying Christian, our findings was that she was a money-monger, who use perceived religious values to dupe the state of funds running into billions of naira.
Mrs Fayose was alleged to have collected about N120million, every month from the state’s ministies and the Stomach Infrastructure agency, under the pretext of spending same on women and youths empowerment.
“There are no records of what she did with all the billions and yet, she goes around flaunting her church credentials all over the place”?
” From our investigations over time, she was said to be worse than the husband. She was even said to her duped even her husband on several occasions, showing that she was far worse than him, when it comes to siphoning public funds.
