The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has described the education summit held last Tuesday by Governor Ayodele Fayose to develop a blueprint for primary and secondary school education as a “fraud.”
It claimed the summit was a ploy to rubber-stamp the governor’s premeditated imposition of school fees and taxes on the people.
Fayose had at the summit expressed support for the reintroduction of Teacher Training College as proposed by the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu Ambali, in his goodwill message.
The governor also said that there was no going back on collection of taxes in the state, saying his government would soon convoke a tax and landlords’ summits.
“We are going to take the issue of taxation seriously as no government thrives without it. Private school owners should pay up their dues and levies. Allocations from Abuja cannot be solely relied upon anymore.”
Also at the summit, the Founder of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), said the governor had shown the zeal to reposition education in the state and restore its lost glory.
The legal luminary said a similar one organised during Fayose’s first term, improved the standard of education in the state and catapulted it to become one of the best in the country.
But dismissing the summit as a fraud with a pre-determined agenda to make the already impoverished parents to pay more for the education of their children, the APC alleged that Fayose goaded the unsuspecting participants into endorsing his agenda.
The APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement on Monday that the summit, achieved three goals: the imposition of school fees in primary and secondary schools, imposition of unreasonable taxes on the people and taxes on landlords.
“We wonder what quality of discussion could be achieved in three hours as timed by Fayose. It is only for the purpose of media coverage to deceive the unsuspecting public.
“We note that the three decisions boil down to a further impoverishment of the already over-stretched poor parents, who were deceived by Fayose during campaigns that he would provide all good things of life and empowerment schemes, including economic incentives to enable parents to take care of their wards, only for the governor to start unleashing hardships on them after inauguration as governor.
“Fayose is making life difficult for Ekiti students and their parents while his own children study abroad.”
The party berated the governor for not exploring other revenue generating assets of the state to lift the burden off the shoulders of Ekiti people.
“The multi-billion naira Ikogosi Warm Springs and Resort Centre, which is supposed to be generating revenue for the state, has been abandoned to rot away by Fayose while the Ire Burnt Bricks Company recently resuscitated by the Fayemi administration has been abandoned as well as the Ekitiparapo Pavilion, which has been left unutilised.
“To add salt to injury, he has decided to impose all sorts of ridiculous taxes on the already over-impoverished Ekiti people which amounts to double jeopardy. We have been asking Fayose what he has done with almost N40bn he has received apart from monthly allocation which is on average of N3bn in the last 10 months, but he has no answer to this.”
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