By Gbenga Ariyibi
Ekiti State Government Tuesday gave insight into the alleged over N40 billion debt left for the new administration by the ousted government led by Engr Segun Oni.

Oni was said to have owed contractors handling various projects to the tune of N27 billion while N7.5 billion was left as debt due to loans obtained by the deposed administration.

It was equally discovered that N240.97 billion accrued to the state as allocations from the Federation Account throughout the 42-month illegal regime of Oni.

The disclosure was made by both the Accountant-General, Mr. David Ibikunle and the Auditor-General, Mr. Adebayo Ajayi during a stakeholders meeting yesterday.

Responding, the state governor Dr Kayode Fayemi said the public presentation was in line with the transparency policy of his administration.

Fayemi said the presentation was not intended to witch-hunt, blackmail or indict anybody but to allow the public know the actual and true financial position of the state, this he noted, would afford the people of the state to appreciate the challenges facing the new administration.

He said that interest rates on some of the bank loans had already been renegotiated downward from  22 per cent to 14 per cent while a committee would be set up to review all contracts awarded in the state during the period under review.

A breakdown of the bank debts revealed that N4.683 billion is owed to UBA Plc at rate of 20 per cent, N2.498 billion to Oceanic Bank at the rate of 18 per cent, N1.5 billion is owed to First Bank Plc at the rate of 20 per cent, while the state is indebted to Intercontinental Bank to the tune of N532 billion.

But Fayemi had three weeks ago alleged that Oni had plunged the state into debt to the tune of over N30 billion which was promptly denied by the ousted governor through his aides.

The statistics on the state financial records were computed based on receipts and contracts from June 2007 to October 15, 2010.

The summary of indebtedness revealed that debts incurred by the ousted regime as at October 15 stood at N70, 533, 555, 927.03 out of which N43,137,274,287.79 had been paid leaving an outstanding balance of N40,049,636,361.27 for the Fayemi administration.