The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has warned Governor Ayodele Fayose against misinforming the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N-Power Scheme in the state, cautioning that it is too late to employ deceit to secure undeserved support of the people.
Hundreds of Ekiti State youths were recently enlisted by the Federal Government to benefit from its employment scheme targeted at removing unemployed graduates from the job market.
Fayose allegedly took ownership of the scheme by assembling the youth in the Government House, making promises of stipends and other conveniences, including churning out details of what they should do and what they should not do, and thus allegedly creating an impression that he had better primary assignments for the youth different from as stipulated in the N-Power protocol as envisaged by the Federal Government.
In a statement in Ado-Ekiti, the Publicity Secretary of the APC, Taiwo Olatunbosun, scoffed at the governor, accusing him of fraud in his attempt to hijack the Federal Government’s project to his advantage.
Olatunbosun accused Fayose of double standard, noting that while the governor spent days and nights criticising all development programmes initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari, “he is fraudulently hijacking the N-Power programme he does not wish well to his advantage”.
He said: “It is amusing that a governor who believes that he is in government for self-enrichment and who has never hidden his anti-people conducts by refusing to encourage job-creation schemes and always wishing Buhari’s administration bad luck in its welfare programmes could suddenly attempt to hijack N-Power to his advantage.”
Listing the governor’s anti-people conducts since assumption of office, Olatunbosun explained: “Fayose is the first governor in the history of this state that made unprecedented numbers of 1,464 youths jobless in just one and half years in office.
“He closed down Ecobank, making 11 of its staff from Ekiti State to lose their jobs while he severed working relationship with Zenith Bank that has several Ekiti people as workers for acting professionally in not aiding crime in Fayose’s alleged involvement in arms cash-for-election fraud in the state.
“He sacked over 500 youths in Ekiti State Peace Corps while reducing youths in EKSMA (Dagrin) from 800 to 100 making 700 jobless, including reduction in the numbers of street sweepers and cutting their pay by half while he also sacked 100 youths engaged in Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development scheme.
“Fayose cannot sack 200 youths in the House of Assembly, cancel 400 jobs at EKSU, cancel 30,000 appointments made by former Governor Kayode Fayemi, reverse promotions for head-teachers, sack permanent secretaries, sack street sweepers, reduce running grants for civil servants, cut monarchs’ salaries by half while increasing his personal security vote to N250m, including refusing to institute job creation schemes, and now he is grandstanding, using Federal Government’s empowerment scheme to create an impression that he is a friend of the masses.”
Warning the governor against issuing out misleading directives to the youth, including misinforming the public on the N-Power scheme, Olatunbosun urged the youth to await orders from the Federal Government on their primary assignments, saying details of their job schedules and benefit packages would soon be made public by the N-Power management team.
He added that the Federal Government will soon announce the second phase of the programme, promising that hundreds of Ekiti youths will also benefit from the life-lifting.
