A governorship aspirant and immediate past Secretary to the Ekiti State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, has been accused of diverting billions of naira allocated to his former office by Governor Kayode Fayemi for local government and ward executives of the All Progressives Congress.
Oyebanji is the anointed aspirant of the First Lady, Bisi Fayemi.
Some APC members, who spoke with SaharaReporters, had earlier alleged that Mrs Fayemi was backing the aspiration of Oyebanji against her husband’s wish.
A local government executive member of the party told SaharaReporters that a stipend of N20,000 each was allocated to the office of the Secretary to the State Government monthly to be given to party executives but Oyebanji diverted the funds for three years.
“Can we please ask Oyebanji to account for this huge sum. It’s no hidden facts again that all the ward excos across the 177 ward receive monthly stipend of N10,000 while that of 16 local government area take home N20,000 monthly.
“In a simple arithmetic: There are 26 excos in each ward. Thus, 26 × 177 = 4602 ward excos with cost implications monthly of: 4602 × N10,000 = N46,020,000 (N46m) and annually, 12 × N46,020,000 = N552,240,000 (N552.24m) and in the past 3 years: N552,240,000 × 3 = N1,656,720,000 (N1.656bn).
“Let us also go down to the local government exco: there are 16 LGAs with 26 excos in each of the local government: the arithmetical calculation is therefore as follows: 26 × 16 = 416 with cost implications monthly: 416 × N20,000 = N8,320,000 (N8.3m) and in one year: N8,320,000 × 12 = N99,840,000 (99.84m) and in 3years: N299,520,000 (299.5m)
“Can we therefore ask our annointed candidate to tell us and Ekiti people, irrespective of party affiliation how these tax payers money were distributed and expended totalling N1,956,240,000. (1.956bn). That’s about 2billion.”
Speaking further, the APC chieftain said, “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap. He was at different times a different person to different individuals. He was the chief strategist to Michael Opeyemi Bamidele during the Senate struggle in 2010.
“The chief strategist to Oluomo Segun Osunkolu for senatorial contest, chief strategist to Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, but what was the outcome of all these, even same nomenclature to Akinlayo Kolawole.
“We must all remember that all these victims of Mr Strategist are at their various positions of authority at no contribution or participation as Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele currently representing Ekiti Central, while Olubunmi Adetunmbi represents Ekiti North, while several others that have paid to the chief strategist for consultancy are also at their various positions without any contributions of this “perfect strategist”.
“With the above, I will also like to remind one of the All Progressives Congress aspirants in Ekiti, particularly in person of Biodun Oyebanji of the seeds he had sown in the past. Maybe he has forgotten that a day like this will come when he was boasting before aspirants before now, under the guise of “consultancy” to collect huge sum to be their campaign consultant, using a prominent sin of Iyin-Ekiti and a current minister as a ploy to convince the aspirants then to enter his traps.
“Some of his antics can easily come to mind of some of the current aspirants as they have fallen his victims, he is the only person who can give account of how much he had collected, little did they know that he was loading his account to launch attack and political war against them in future and the time is now.
“Of particular note was the over N28million he collected from an aspirant in 2017 to work for him as his campaign consultant, it is no doubt that his conscience would have been kicking in case he had forgotten, but is it even easy to forget a deal of N28million where N18million was released immediately in cash.
“After a lot of threat joined by a serving female House of Representatives members from Ijero-Ekiti axis, he collected the balance of the N10million and the compensation for the female federal lawmaker, I leave them to their conscience.
“As if that was not enough, he simply approach the aspirant that the serving Minister had directed them to work for a particular aspirant, who later became the party candidate and won the election, the tenure is about to end and the compensation is the current chess on the table.
“This convinced me beyond expectation that he does not need the seat, but that some leaders came together to send him on an errand. This brought about another Yoruba adage that: ‘Ti won ba ran ni n’ise eru, a maa nfi ti omo je ni o’. Mr Annointed, can you be generous and kind enough to let us know those who have come to collect any money under any guise for your ambition.
“You have collected money from aspirants like you now before this day, and even vowed not to contest any election, even as low as ordinary councillor, and if anyone sees your poster anywhere, that maybe it’s your obituary, I pray that God did not take your words for your vow, ‘tori wipe, eyin ni ohun, to o ba ti jade, ko see ko pada’. A word is enough for the wise, but it is always good to guide our actions, not for today, but future purposes.”
When contacted, spokesperson for the Biodun Oyebanji Campaign Organisation, Raheem Akingbolu, asked our correspondent to text him.
He, however failed to respond to the question sent to him hours after acknowledging it.