Fayose: TSA is fraud

 

I won’t attend meeting on revenue policy, says Ekiti gov

EKITI State Governor Ayodele Fayose has said he will not attend the meeting called by the Federal Government with governors on the Treasury Single Account (TSA), noting that his state was not interested in the policy, which he said was fraud against Nigeria and its people.
A statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, the governor said: “The Federal Government should rather remove the veil on the face of REMITA so that Nigerians know the real owners, through whom the All Progressives Congress (APC) is allegedly siphoning Nigeria money to fund Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections.
“From all intent and purposes, this TSA policy is aimed at recouping money spent on the last general elections by the APC, as well as raise money for future elections, especially the 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!
“How can the Federal Government justify a transaction in which a single company gets one per cent, amounting to N25 billion in one month?
“In this economic situation that Nigeria is, shouldn’t the one per cent commission be negotiated downward to like 0.1 per cent which would have reduced the N25 billion to N2.5billion,” he said.
According to him, “even manufacturing companies, with thousands of employees don’t make N25 billion profit in one month. Therefore, what Nigerians are expecting from the Federal Government is explanation on the alleged N25 billion scam already associated with the operation of the TSA, instead of calling governors to a meeting that is aimed at imposing the TSA policy on the states.”
Insisting that he will not attend the meeting, Governor Fayose said the Federal Government cannot force its policies on states that are the federating units in the 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.