Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said Federal Government's disclosure on the debt profile of the state had vindicated him on his claim that the immediate past administration of Dr Kayode Fayemi ran the state aground financially.
The governor, reacting to statement by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that the state government is owing N85.04 billion as local debts, said Fayemi left the state in an insolvent position.
The governor spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday.
"When I came on board, I said they left over N80 billion naira debt profile, they came out to say they left a debt profile of only N34 billion. They were silent on the N25 billion bond they took from the Capital Market that everybody in Ekiti State is aware of. They were also silent on the commercial loans they took that was well over N31 billion.
"Assuming, without conceding, if it was only the bond loan that they took, were they saying then that they only incurred debts of N6 billion when we have records of how they obtained loans from various financial institutions.
"For record purposes, I will cite some instances of loans they took from commercial banks. In 2014, they took a loan of N5.753 billion from Ecobank at 18 percent interest rate. Earlier, in 2010, they took a loan of N1.904 billion from the same bank at the same interest rate.
"In 2010, they took a loan of N8.7 billion from Skye Bank at 15.5 percent interest rate. In 2013, Fayemi administration took a loan of N1.3 billion from Wema Bank at 17 percent interest rate. That same year, they also borrowed N308 million from Fidelity Bank at a rate of between 15 and 20 percent.
"The list is endless, but with an average interest rate of 14.83 percent, the various loans, after being restructured into bond by the Debt Management Office, gulped N37.253 billion interests and amounted to N56.082 billion excluding the N25 billion they took.
"The huge debts incurred by the Fayemi administration has made Ekiti to become insolvent because over N1 billion is deducted from our allocations monthly and that will continue till 2036. Current economic recession notwithstanding, these monthly deductions to service the debts they left behind are affecting payment of salaries and other government activities.
"The most painful aspect of their prodigal behaviour is that all the monies borrowed were not used for the purposes they were borrowed. It is our administration that is now building a new Ojaba Market, a new Governor's Office, the flyover among others," he said.
The governor stated that the people of the state and Nigerians in general, could verify his claims from the institutions mentioned as well as DMO.
"Since we came on board, we have not borrowed any money and our allocations are always made public. They are not as huge as the monthly allocations Fayemi got. What we are saying is contained in public documents that anybody can verify," he said.
The governor also said the huge allocations and frequent excess crude oil funds given the state then were squandered.
Fayose urged the people of the state to take note of prodigal sons who threw the state into debts and avoid them like plague in the future.
