‎APC blames Ekiti suicide on Fayose’s insincerity in bailout application

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has sympathised with the family of Tope Afolayan, a civil servant who committed suicide over non-payment of salary and Ekiti workers in general.



The party attributed the death by suicide of Tope Afolayan, in Ado-Ekiti to the insincerity of Governor Ayodele Fayose in the application of the two tranches of bailout cash approved by the Federal Government to pay workers’ salaries.

It said the governor’s “penchant for telling lies, insincerity, greed and despotic conduct to corner the state’s resources while Ekiti people suffer in hopelessness has created uncertainties and gloom, forcing on the populace life-threatening emotional shocks and other despondent conducts hitherto strange to the culture of Ekiti people”.

Media reports said Afolayan, a Grade Level 12 officer in the office of the State Accountant General and final year Law student of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, hanged himself in his Olorunda area home in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, last Thursday after alleged bouts of family responsibility failures and debts repayment defaults arising from months of unpaid salaries.

In a statement in Ado-Ekiti, Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, blamed the unfortunate incident on the “callousness” of the governor, who, he said, “collected more than enough” to pay workers’ salary arrears but allegedly kept the money in private accounts to yield interests for personal use.

“Fayose was owing one month salary when he collected the first bailout of N9.6b, which he diverted to other purposes known only to himself and refused to use it for salaries, pensions, gratuity and severance allowances as approved by the Federal Government.

“The last bailout of N8.8b he collected, Fayose fixed N5.3 billion of this money in Skye Bank so that he can benefit from the interest that will accrue on the deposit while the remaining N3.2 billion is in the JAC Account, even as he has refused to pay the beneficiaries of the bailout as approved by the Federal Government.

“This is after he raised the hopes of workers that he would make life easier for them through regular payment of salary from bailout cash, but today, workers are rarely seen in their offices, as they are on their farms planting to make ends meet while those who do not have lands to farm stay away from their offices.


“Now, unfortunate incidents of stealing pot of soup on fire, shop-lifting and burglary to steal food items for survival have suddenly become the means through which Ekiti workers survive while the governor takes N250m monthly security vote without spending kobo on security and over-bloated capital projects costs to short-change the people to enjoy himself, including keeping millions of Ekiti money at home from which his mistresses and aides stole N75m cash,” he explained.

Accusing Fayose of insincerity in dealing with the workers to endure pains while he enjoys his life, Olatunbosun also berated the governor for deceiving the workers and the general public that he had promoted 15,000 workers as part of Christmas package “even though no worker has received his promotion letter as we speak”.

He added: “Fayose created an impression that he is a lover of workers by misleading the general public that he had promoted 15,000 workers, whereas as we speak, no single worker has been promoted.

“What the governor is doing right now is the compilation of the names of qualified workers that will sit for promotion examinations and those he is selecting are those he believes will support his political aspiration contrary to the public perception that he had promoted workers encase.

“As we speak, majority of workers know nothing about those Fayose has purportedly promoted, or those to be promoted because it is only selected workers that are being given forms to fill for screening to sit for promotion examination, meaning that the few that will be promoted should not expect any elevation until April or May on the condition that they pass the examination, even though Fayose had lied to Nigerians that he had promoted 15,000 workers in December.”

Asking workers to demand for their right, Olatunbosun urged EFCC and Central Bank (CBN) to apply the law over reckless misapplication of bailout cash in Ekiti State.