Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said he will not attend the meeting called by the Federal Government with State governors on the Treasury Single Account (TSA), pointing out categorically that the State Government was not interested in the TSA policy, which he said was a fraud against Nigeria and its people.
Governor Fayose said in a press statement issued on Sunday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka that “the Federal Government should rather remove the veil on the face of REMITA so that Nigerians can know the real owners, through whom the All Progressives Congress (APC) is siphoning Nigeria money to fund Kogi and Bayelsa States governorship election.”
The governor said: “From all intent and purposes, this TSA policy is aimed at recouping money spent on the last general elections by the APC, as well as raise money for future elections, especially the Kogi and Bayelsa States gubernatorial poll.
“It is also meant to enrich some individuals for doing virtually nothing and that can be seen from the discovery of N25 billion that already accrued to just a single company in one month!
“How can the Federal Government justify a transaction in which a single company gets one percent, amounting to N25 billion in one month?
“In this economic situation that Nigeria is, shouldn’t the one percent commission have been negotiated downward to like 0.1 percent which would have reduced the N25 billion to N2.5 billion?
“Even manufacturing companies, with thousands of employees don’t make N25 billion profit in one month.
“Therefore, what Nigerians are expecting from the Federal Government is explanation on the alleged N25 billion naira scam already associated with the operation of the TSA, instead of calling State Governors to a meeting that is aimed at imposing the TSA policy on the
States.”
Maintaining that he will not attend the Federal Government’s meeting with State governors on the TSA, Governor Fayose said the Federal Government cannot force its policies on States that are federating units in the Nigeria federation.
“Ekiti State is entitled to its own policies and it is not under any obligation to accept Federal Government policies, especially the TSA that is already robed in the garment of fraud.
“I therefore wish to state categorically that Ekiti State is not interested in the TSA policy and since the State is not interested, I, as the custodian of the popular mandate of the entire people of the State will not attend any meeting called by the Federal Government on
the TSA,” he said.