The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State has told Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to return N1.5 billion of the southwestern state’s money donated to fund his election by immediate past governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi.
Dr. Kayode Fayemi is now minister of solid minerals serving in Buhari’s cabinet. Widely regarded as a “super minister” in the government, Fayemi’s aides boast that their boss is “chummy” with the president. He was head of strategy for the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation during the 2015 presidential elections.
Fayemi, allegedly transferred N1.5 billion from his account in a bank located along Liberation Square, Accra, Ghana to the APC Presidential Campaign Fund account “in other to place him in a vantage position for ministerial appointment should Buhari win the February 14 Presidential election,” the PDP alleges.
The party, in an e-mailed statement on Monday, July 3, 2016 maintained that “equity and justice demand that Buhari should return what he got from Ekiti State treasury through Fayemi, if he [Buhari] is running after those who allegedly got money from the office of the national security adviser (ONSA).”
The statement, signed by the Ekiti State publicity secretary of the PDP, Jackson Adebayo says that the N1.5 billion, if returned will go a long way in cushioning the effects of the dwindling economic fortune of the State, especially payment of Ekiti workers’ salaries.
“N1.5 billion is a lot of money and Ekiti State government will only need to add some millions to be able to pay one month’s salary if Buhari returns the money.
“The APC government of Fayemi left office with August and September 2014 salaries of workers unpaid but the same Fayemi could donate N1.5 billion to Buhari’s campaign just because he wanted to be minister. Where then is the morality in Buhari’s anti-corruption posture when he was funded with stolen fund?
The party insist that President Buhari must therefore return the N1.5 billion, allegedly stolen from Ekiti State, by the former governor, which was eventually used to fund his election.
While reiterating the PDP’s support for the fight against corruption, the party also said that “President Buhari must first remove the logs in his eyes before his attempt to remove the toothpicks in other people’s eyes can be taken seriously; and the first step he must take is to return the N1.5 billion he got from Fayemi to fund his election.
