Ekiti PDP, APC clash over stomach infrastructure...

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has berated Governor Ayodele Fayose for not fulfilling his electoral promises to the Ekiti people, saying his stomach infrastructure policy was deceitful and a ploy to treat the electorates like beggars.

The party said the governor had turned Ekiti people to beggars by giving them handouts in form of “kwashiorkor-infested chickens, not bigger in size than ailing pigeons.”

But the Peoples Democratic Party in the state described the APC as an “hypocrite” for adopting the stomach infrastructure policy which it had condemned the governor for.



The party claimed that a national leader of the APC, (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu), distributed 2,000 bags of rice, vegetable oil, sugar and cash gift to people from various parts of Lagos State on Sunday. He said, “It is hypocrisy at its peak to do what you abuse someone else of doing.”

The APC, in a statement by its state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said Ekiti people had now seen the deceit of a man who claimed to be a friend of the common man

He said, “Governor Fayose gave two “congos” of rice and miserable palm oil, not up to a litre, all totalling N700 to each worker, for which the governor had earlier deducted N2,000 from his salary for Christmas gift.

“This is in contrast to Governor Kayode Fayemi who empowered the people through agriculture, cooperative and employment and apprenticeship schemes involving over 2,000 youths. These helped the people to earn a living and made them happy for four years, as against Fayose’s tokenism as Christmas gifts.”

Olatunbosun said instead of Fayose building on these laudable schemes, he had cancelled all the programmes, rendering the youth jobless while he had also cancelled promotions in the civil service and dismissed many workers for the offences they did not commit.

“Fayemi last year paid civil servants 30 per cent of their salary as Christmas bonus. He also paid their leave bonus while their December salary was paid on December 18.

“In contrast, Fayose has refused to pay civil servants their September salary even though he had collected September allocation from the Federal Government. Civil servants are yet to be paid as of December 22.

“Last year, apart from 30 per cent bonus and leave bonus, all offices in the MDAs were given gifts but all these have gone under Fayose as workers are now praying for their September salary let alone December salary, or Christmas or leave bonus.”

But the State Secretary of the PDP, Dr. Tope Aluko, in a statement on Monday, said that the Fayose-led government would never shy away from the people’s welfare.

He said Fayose’s concept of stomach infrastructure had been further justified by its adoption by the APC national leader.

Aluko said, “They abuse us for providing immediate succour for our people. They described stomach infrastructure as an insult to Ekiti people. They said it does not add value to the people; it diminishes their self-esteem, it diminishes their sense of self-worth and it denigrates what politics ought to be about.

“However, their party leader in Lagos, on Sunday, adopted the same concept of stomach infrastructure by personally sharing food items to the people.

“After condemning the concept, isn’t it rather too late that the APC people are just realising that poverty should be addressed by providing immediate succour because poverty is poverty; it knows no religion and it has no tribal mark; and it affects everyone of us?

“Governor Fayose will continue to run a welfarist government. He will continue to identify with the masses by putting food on their tables.

“Most importantly, Governor Fayose will provide gainful employments for the youths and assist traders with soft loans so that they can be able to feed themselves,” he added.