The governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, had on Monday, December 15, 2014 presented the appropriation bill of N80.774 billion tagged “Budget of Reality,” for the 2015 fiscal year to only seven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislators in the absence of the majority members who belong to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fayose, who made the presentation at the chamber of the state’s House of Assembly to the PDP caucus led by factional Speaker Dele Olugbemi also declared that “nobody can remove Olugbemi from office.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) legislators were absent from the budget presentation ceremony which was witnessed by senior government officials and a handful of traditional rulers, according to reports.
Members of the house were restricted from sitting in the chairs belonging to the APC lawmakers during the proceedings amidst water-tight security measures around the house with soldiers, riot policemen, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
It was learnt that during the presentation, all electronic media were restricted from recording while just the cameras of the Press Crew of the Governor’s Office and the Press Unit of the House of Assembly were allowed to cover the event.
According to the budget estimate, N48.7 billion was earmarked for recurrent expenditure, while capital expenditure will gulp N31.9 billion
Against his initial statement that he would not borrow to run his administration, Fayose disclosed that he would access N5 billion internal loans so as to meet up.
Also, during the event, the governor seized the opportunity to reinstate his support for Olugbemi’s leadership” of the Assembly, maintaining that the “factional Speaker” would remain in office till June 2015.
“You (Olugbemi) are the Speaker of this Assembly, I repeat, you are the Speaker of this Assembly and nobody can remove you from this position. I want to emphasize that this Speaker will remain there till June.
“If they (APC lawmakers) like, they should be meeting and sitting in the Houses of Assembly in other states. Any attempt to overrun this state will be resisted by our people,” he said.
