A former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has accused the State Government of frustrating efforts to obtain the report of the panel that indicted him.
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A white paper recently released by the state government banned Fayemi and his former Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Kolawole, for 10 years over alleged mismanagement of state finances between October 2010 and 2014.
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Fayemi, now the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, was the governor within the period.
Fayemi through his counsel, Chief Rafiu Balogun, told journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday that he had yet to get a certified true copy of the report even after applying for it.
According to him, he sent a written application to the offices of the Ekiti State Attorney General and the Secretary to the State Government as directed by the Secretary to the Commission.
Balogun said the panel’s report was one of the important documents needed in the case being instituted by the former governor to challenge the outcome of the panel, which barred him and Kolawole.
He said, “We are not pleased with the lackadaisical attitude of the Ekiti State Government to a simple request for CTC of the Report in their custody, even when we have informed them of our readiness to pay the requisite fee for production and certification.
“What does it take to produce and certify the report? It is in the public domain now that the Government has accepted the Report of the Commission of Inquiry by issuance of White Paper and requested our clients to return some money when the Commission did not find them guilty of fraud or embezzlement of any contract sum and it was not found that they have any interest in any Company that they claimed did not execute the projects.”
But reacting, the Commissioner for Information, Youths and Sports Development, Mr Lanre Ogunsuyi, stated that the document was a public one and could be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by anyone.
He said the allegation by the lawyer and Fayemi was “another effort to paint the state government in bad light while they are trying to escape the consequences of their fraudulent acts while in office.”
He added, “You are aware that by antecedents, Fayemi even refused to appear during the sitting of the panel. I don’t know what the lawyer is saying by alleging that government is frustrating his effort to get the document.
“I am saying now that he should come, he will have it. If he is claiming that he has come before, he should come again, we will give him the document. It is a government gazette that is obtainable under the freedom of information bill. So, he should come and have it, he will have it.”
