EKITI State governor Kayode Fayemi has accused the Federal Government of sabotaging efforts made by Ekiti and Ondo state governments to fix the dilapidated Akure-Ado Ekiti expressway.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Fayemi said the Federal Government refused to grant approval for the dualisation of the expressway after the affected state governments received funds from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to execute the project.
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The governor was reacting to the visit of the Minister of State for Transportation, Ademola Adegoroye, to the Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, concerning the project.
Shedding light on issues surrounding the road, the governor said, “I have spent the last three years on the subject of this road. I finally got them to award the dualisation in November 2019 at the cost of N30 billion. To date, the contractor has only received N2 billion.
“I then got money from the AFDB for the road through Akinwumi Adesina (AFDB President), and the Federal Government refused to cede the road to Ondo and Ekiti states and threatened us there will be no refund if we went ahead and tempered with their road.
“In the end, we transferred the money to them and even helped them follow up with AFDB.”
Fayemi added: “Up till now, they (Federal Government) can’t access the money because they have refused to follow AFDB procurement standards. After that, got them to put in Sukuk money but the contractor has not been able to access this.
“We are now pursuing NNPC to include the road in their new tax credit roads they are funding but we are still on it.”
The governor said the issue had dragged for three years.
“There is no month Fashola and I do not speak about this road for the past three years. It has even caused friction between the two of us. If we had been given the clearance to do the road and toll it, we offered to do that, but the Federal Government refused,” he added.
Sinafi Omanga works as a multimedia and investigative reporter at the International Centre for Investigative Reporting - ICIR. He has a keen interest in accountability, health and environmental issues.
Twitter handle:
@OmangaSinafi
Email:
somanga@icirnigeria.org