Kwara Speaker, Former Gov Trade Words over N2.7bn Road Contract

By Hammed Shittu

Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Yakubu Danladi, has accused the immediate-past governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, for allegedly turning the 33 kilometre Ilesha/Gwanara road contract into a conduit pipe to siphon the state funds.

The road contact worth N2.7billion was allegedly awarded by the former governor to a contractor during his administration “without any work done.”

But in a swift reaction yesterday, the former governor, through his former Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, described the allegation raised by Danladi as political and has no effect.

He, however, said: “The contract for Ilesha Gwanara Road was awarded by the administration and the contractor was paid in relation to the work done. We paid according to specification of the job as approved by the state Ministry of Works.”

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend on the activities of the state House of Assembly in the last one year, Danladi also said the Assembly under his leadership has passed 22 bills and motions that were germane to the overall benefits of Kwara people.

According to him, “The former administration in the state awarded the surface dressing of the 33 km Ilesha/Gwanara Road to a contractor, and nothing was done on it.

“This is a popular road where this Otoge started. The youths in the area blocked our former House of Representatives member, and the video went viral.

“It is a 33 km road which the former state Governor, Ahmed, used as a conduit pipe to siphon the state resources because N1.8 billion had been paid to the contractor with nothing being done on the road.”

Danladi, who said the people in the area had never seen an asphalt road before, stated that the incumbent state Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, had awarded the road with asphalt tarring at lower cost and would be completed before the end of this year.

“There are some of our villagers who have never seen asphalt since the creation of the earth. Abdulrazaq is the first governor to construct asphalt road in Gwanara.

“The contractor has been mobilised to the site, and by December, the project would be completed,” he said.

However, Chief Press Secretary to former governor, Oba said the contract for Ilesha Gwanara Road was awarded by the administration and the contractor was paid in relation to the work done, adding: “We paid according to specification of the job as approved by the state Ministry of Works.

“What the speaker has said is political to please his people. We have done the needful when we were in government. The present administration should do the needful by serving the people. It should face the future and do the needful because four years is close.”