Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has stopped the education tax introduced by former government Ayodele Fayose in all primary and secondary schools with immediate effect.
Fayemi also said education will, henceforth, be free in all public primary and secondary schools across the state, adding that it was an aberration for school children to pay tax.
Fayose had, in 2015, introduced payment of education tax in all private and public schools across the state, whereby children at primary and secondary cadres were mandated to pay N500 and N1,000 per term, respectively.
The new governor also appealed to Ekiti people to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, and said only the continuity of Buhari/Osinbajo administration would bring the realisation of all projects promised by the Federal Government to Ekiti.
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Speaking during a thank you visit to Ekiti South and North senatorial district headquarters, Ido and Ikere Ekiti yesterday, Fayemi said: “Education is now free up to the secondary cadre in Ekiti State. Our children would no longer pay tax in both public and private schools.
“When we were in government before 2010 and 2014, we ran free education until when the last administration came and said school children should pay tax.
“By the grace of God, by December this year, we are also going to introduce school feeding from primary to Junior Secondary 3 as part of the benefits we will get from the federal government,” he said.
On the 2019 elections, Fayemi said, “the only way the promise made by President Buhari to extend rail line to Ekiti, dualise Ado-Akure Road and do other projects is by allowing this administration to continue beyond 2019.”
Meanwhile, Fayose has insisted that his administration did not commit the state to any financial institution in form of bonds and commercial loans. He described Fayemi’s claim that the state was indebted to the tune of N170 billion as false and “a way of preparing grounds for his impending failure just as he did when he assumed office in 2010.”
He also described the statement credited to Fayemi that his administration was an error as a mere political statement that should not be taken seriously.
Fayose, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, said Ekiti people knew that his administration was never an error, rather it brought unparalleled blessings and development to the state.
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Fayemi had, in his inaugural address dismissed Fayose’s four year tenure as an error that Ekiti should never wish to experience, alleging that the immediate past chief executive’s administration plunged the state into N170 billion debt.
But, reacting through Adelusi, Fayose said: “I want to reiterate that former Governor Fayose did not borrow a dime to run the state. The debt which Fayemi is referring to are the loans which he took from the Capital Market and commercial banks. This debt was restructured by the Federal Government for easy payment.”