The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has cried out over alleged monumental fraud which the party claimed it discovered in the partial execution of Ibadan Circular Road project, warning that the “unabated corruption being perpetrated by the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde could plunge the state into irredeemable doom in the nearest future.”
The APC noted that at the commissioning ceremony, which took place at Badeku junction along Ife-Ibadan express road last Friday, Makinde announced that the Ibadan Circular Road project was the largest investment in Oyo State in 50 years and had cost a whooping sum of N300 billion.
Reacting in a statement issued on Wednesday by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC queried Makinde on the rationale behind government’s redesign of the road project to occupy 425 meters as setbacks on both sides when the standard measure for any Trunk ‘A’ road does not exceed 60 meters across the globe.
According to Sadare, the ongoing indiscriminate demolition of poor citizens’ properties is to serve the interest of the governor and his cronies.
“There are many questions begging for answers as far as this matter is concerned. How did Gov. Makinde spend N300 billion on less than a quarter of the whole project when his predecessor, late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, had awarded the contract for its design, construction and completion as well as payment of compensation to those who might lose their properties to construction activities at a total cost of N70 billion in June 2017. The contractor had done about 20 per cent of the work before he was sent away when the PDP government came on board in 2019.
“In July 2021, Gov. Makinde announced that he had re-awarded the same project to another contractor at a total sum of N138.2 billion, but last Friday when a stretch representing about a quarter of the whole project was being commissioned (for suspended use by the public), the governor claimed the completed portion had gulped N300 billion. The entire circular road project was designed to cover 110 kilometers and the whole world wants to know the fraction which has now cost N300 billion, and also how much the remaining three quarters would cost.
“Meanwhile, tongues would continue to wag on the issue of the large expanse of land forcefully acquired from the owners in the name of road construction. The fact remains that the people of the state cannot trust a government that is popular for land fraud as it was the case in Ajia, Wofun, Basorun, Bodija, Lagos Express Road among others in the last four years. Those hapless land owners are accusing Gov. Makinde of a surreptitious plan to seize their land and later sell it to some strangers from the East.
“Another issue of concern is that of supposed Agodi-Gate junction improvement project which has been identified as another conduit to siphon the resources of the state. All the state is doing is to evacuate road side traders, clear some blocked drainages, lay light asphalt and install traffic lights, then later claim several billions of naira as the cost of the exaggerated repair works on the popular junctions at Ibadan Civic Centre and Agodi-Gate.
“The sad thing is that the proceeds of these inflated contacts end up in private pockets without any trace. This kind of funds is what some governors in other states are using to rejig agriculture, fix education sector, address hardship among the masses among other things in their domains. Public primary and secondary schools are in dire need of subject teachers, virtually all the inner and access roads are in bad shape, no public tap water anywhere in the state, the population of the poor increases every day and yet, Gov. Makinde misappropriates scarce resources to the detriment of the welfare of the people. This has to stop,” the statement said.
