The Accord Party in Osun State has expressed concern over the State government’s recent award of a N3.3 billion road contract.
In a statement on Monday, Pastor Victor Akande, the Osun Accord Party chairman wondered why the Oyetola administration would award such a contract at this period that the governorship election is at hand.
Akande noted that, “We know of a fact that the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works had awarded the contract of this same road (Osogbo-Okinni-Ilobu), under its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
We also know that the said contractor worked on this road up to April this year when water drainages were being constructed. So, what happened along the line? Has Oyetola just woken up to realize that this road was in bad taste? Did the FG hand over the road construction to Oyetola to re-award the contract?”
He maintained that for a new contractor to be engaged by the Adegboyega Oyetola administration to handle the road project was suspicious.
The party alleged that the main reason the project had been re-awarded was because the current administration needed money to prosecute the election.
We have full information of how local governments’ funds were used for the 2018 governorship election.
As a major opposition party yearning to take over governance, Governor Oyetola should be ready to give account of his stewardship after governance and understand that he will adequately explain how he spent every kobo of Osun money,” he stated.
Reacting, Ismail Omipidan, the Chief Press Secretary to the Osun State Governor asked the Accord Party to concentrate more on how to sell its candidate rather than deceive Osun people with baseless statistics.
He reminded the Accord Party that the masses had been the ones suffering the effects of the state of the road.
While agreeing that it was a federal road, the governor’s spokesperson disclosed that the people needed it the most since it had been abandoned for years.
Omipidan maintained that the State government had followed due process in taking over the repair of the road because it was aware it is a federal government project whose repair work had first been awarded in 2012 and re-awarded again in 2017 before it was taken over by the State government in 2022.
Omipidan, who reminded the Accord Party that Governor Adegboyega Oyetola had in his January 1 address to the State mentioned the intention of the State government not to allow politics overshadow governance, insisted that the governor should be commended for working his talk.
The Accord Party and all other opposition political parties should learn how to play responsible politics,” he stated.
