– Lere Olayinka, the spokesperson to former Governor Ayodele Fayose replies Kayode Fayemi over the latter’s claim that projects were abandoned in Ekiti
– Olayinka boasts that Fayose’s legacy projects are there for any Nigerian to see as against Fayemi’s allegation
– He urges Fayemi to redeem his image as a prodigal son in the few months he has to spend as governor of Ekiti state
Lere Olayinka, the media aide to former Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, on Tuesday, November 6, slammed his principal’s successor, Kayode Fayemi, for saying projects he left behind were abandoned by the past government.
“Fayose has left office and the legacy projects done by his government can be seen by the people of Ekiti, he (Fayemi) should rather use the few months he will spend as governor to redeem his image as a prodigal governor, who used Ekiti heritage, including shares to obtain N5 billion loan from Eco Bank illegally,” Olayinka declared.
Olayinka, who was reacting to Fayemi’s accusation of Fayose’s government of not properly handling the projects he left behind in 2014, said: “As a temporary governor, he (Fayemi) should know that he has a very limited time to spend and should devote his time and resources to things that the people of Ekiti can point to as his achievements after the mandate that was stolen for him might have been retrieved.”
The spokesperson added: “Ikogosi Resort was never abandoned. Rather, what the Fayose government did was to first hand it over to a private company to manage and when the company left because it was unable to meet up with the expected revenue, the government put machineries in motion to seek private investors to take over the resort.
“As at the time we left government, no private investor had shown interest and rather than making noise, Fayemi should continue from where we stopped by intensifying efforts to seek investors to manage the Ikogosi Resort because there is nowhere in the world where government runs such business profitably.
“Most importantly, it is on record that Fayemi spent over N1.2 billion to renovate the Ikogosi Hotel in 2012, let him tell the public how much revenue his government realized from it before he left office.
“On the Oba Adejugbe General Hospital, Ado Ekiti, which was uncompleted when Fayemi commissioned in 2014, initially, we opted for Public Private Partnership (PPP), which did not materialize.
“Thereafter, through the government’s ‘saving one million lives project’, it was equipped with close to N15 million at first instance and Fayemi’s government should improve on that instead of lamenting.
“Finally, we wish to remind Fayemi to also endeavor to take pressmen to the site of the new governor’s office along NTA Road in Ado Ekiti on which he spent over N300 million, and the other invisible projects on which he spent the N25 billion bond he took during his first tenure.”
Recall that Kayode Fayemi, a former minister of mines and steel development was sworn-in as the new governor of Ekiti state recently.
