Count Me Out Of FG Meeting With Govs On TSA Policy – Gov, Fayose

The outspoken Governor of Ekiti State and newly-crowned ‘leader of the opposition governors’, Ayodele Fayose, has vowed not to attend the meeting summoned at the instance of the Federal Government with state governors on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

The governor described the TSA as a fraud against Nigeria and its people and urged the federal government to come clean on the recent allegation of N25 billion fraud rocking the policy.

Fayose, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Lere Olayinka in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, said “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”.

From all intent and purposes, the Ekiti governor argued, the TSA policy is a cover for the governing APC to recoup all the money it spent in the last general elections as well as raise capital for future elections, especially the forthcoming 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!” he added.

Questioning how the Federal Government can justify a transaction in which a single company gets one percent, amounting to N25 billion in one month, Fayose was of the opinion that in light of the dire financial situation in Nigeria, the one percent commission should have been negotiated downward to like 0.1 percent, resulting in a drastic reduction in commission for REMITA from N25 billion to N2.5 billion.

“Even manufacturing companies, with thousands of employees don’t make N25 billion profit in one month”, Fayose fumed.

“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”.

Reiterating his decision to boycott 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.