Oyo: APC slams Makinde’s N8bn road expansion project


The All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has raised the alarm over the plans by the Peoples Democratic Party led administration of Governor Seyi Makinde to spend N8 billion on a proposed reconstruction of the Lagos/Iwo road Interchange axis in Ibadan.

The party kicked against the proposal Sunday in a statement which described the project as “a misplaced priority as well as an attempt to squander government resources”.

The Oyo APC in a statement issued Sunday in Ibadan by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Ayobami Adejumo, said that the Makinde administration was now renowned for embarking on elephant project and what it terms sheer demonstration of its gross incompetence and mismanagement of public funds.

Last Friday, Makinde had announced the state government’s plan to reconstruct the Lagos/Iwo Road interchange at the cost of N8 billion in a bid to decongest the area and also give the physical outlook of Ibadan a facelift.

But the APC dismissed it saying it’s wasteful. “The good people of the pacesetter state were taken aback by the action of Governor Makinde last Friday when he chose a Mosque as the place to announce the plan to do a multi-billion project.

“Without any record of presentation at the State Executive Council meeting or consideration and approval by the appropriate organs of government as required by law, the governor reeled out a contract sum for another white elephant project.

“The question on the lips of many people now bothers on how the cost of N8 billion was arrived at even when no picture of the proposed picture has been shown to the world. What is the scope of the reconstruction project and where are the engineering designs where culminated in the contract sum?

“Was there any due diligence before the cost was arrived at and when did the consultants carry out their survey of the proposed site? Where is the Bill of Quantity and when did the relevant office advertise for tender to be made?

“Another pertinent question is that; why the desperation, on the part of Governor Makinde, to commit a bogus amount of money to any construction work in an area that would be covered by two different projects already awarded by the federal government?

“There are strong indications that the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan expressway rehabilitation project would take off the expansion of the Lagos/Iwo road Interchange while again the recently awarded rehabilitation of Ibadan-Ife Expressway project would cover the remaining portion of the axis.

“As it has become the usual practice of Makinde administration to put the cart before the horse, the people of the state cannot just watch while a government without any blueprint or action plan would continue to experiment after five months in office. So far, the only achievement of the current administration is the rebranded exercise books distributed recently with pomp and ceremony.

“It would have been better to follow up on the exercise books distribution with the provision of pieces of furniture and release of running grants for the use in public primary and secondary schools across the state. Rather the state government embarked on loan bazaar as it awarded some supply contracts without anything to show for the billions of naira being spent on daily basis.

“As if this was not enough, Governor Makinde again took to the mass media recently to announce his plan to construct a new Gbagi Market on the popular Exhibition Ground in Sango, Ibadan at a time experts blamed the vehicular traffic challenges bedevilling the state capital on the existing market places in the heart of the city.

“If not sheer display of incompetence and the unbridled quest to mismanage public funds, there is no reason for this kind of desperation for contract awards by the present administration.” APC stated.

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