Explain role in Abuja N650m land deal, APC asks Fayose

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has challenged Governor Ayodele Fayose to explain to Ekiti people how he got N650m to purchase a land allegedly transferred to the retired Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh.

Badeh is facing a criminal trial over alleged fraud in property acquisition in Abuja.

The party said Fayose’s response became imperative following refusal by the governor to declare his assets publicly, including allegations of fraud raised against him that he had not denied.

A witness in the trial of Badeh on Monday before a Federal High Court, Abuja, testified that Fayose was the owner of a N650m land that variously changed hands before the former CDS acquired it.

The state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement in Ado Ekiti, said the Ekiti people would want to know the details of the governor’s properties and how he acquired them in the face of several allegations of illegal fund transfers, including the $35 million he allegedly got from the Office of the National Security Adviser to prosecute his election in what is now known as Ekitigate.

“Fayose has refused to tell Ekiti people the details of his assets after he was sworn in and of course we have been vindicated in our claim that the governor was involved in the arms purchase fraud through which billions of naira were ferried to Ekiti to rig his election.

“This is also a confirmation of alleged keeping of billions of naira in specially-designed save, made in South Africa where proceeds of frauds are kept in Afao-Ekiti.

“In his first term, anti-crime agencies discovered that the governor made anticipatory declaration of assets, including his Iyaganku mansion in Ibadan.

“The site of that property was a thick forest when Fayose became a governor as discovered by the EFCC and DSS in their reports on the governor’s assets declaration form,” Olatunbosun explained.

He added that the governor was among the Nigerian political office holders listed to own properties in Dubai, which he never declared, stressing that this confirmed the party’s position that the governor was in a mission to milk the state while the people suffered.