Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun
The Ogun State Government on Thursday said the Labour Party in the state was out of touch with the people of the state regarding the ongoing infrastructural development programme of the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration.
The state government described the statement credited to the Labour Party on the on-going infrastructural development in the state as one borne out of ignorance and a demonstration that its leadership was not in tune with the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the state.
The LP in Ogun State had on Wednesday accused the Action Congress of Nigeria-led administration of Amosun of perpetrating “monumental fraud” through its ongoing urban infrastructural renewal projects.
The LP had also querried the construction of a pedestrian bridge by the state government at the cost of N260m, alleging that the Amosun government had been “systematically” looting the state’s treasury by executing projects that did not have any economic benefits for the people of the state.
But the Ogun State Government in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, said its infrastructural development programme was a response to the inadequate and old-fashioned state of the facilities dotting the state’s landscape.
Olaniyonu said many of the state’s infrastructure has yet to witness “government touch in the last 20 years.”
Olaniyonu said, “The 16 roads being constructed across the state are attempts by the Amosun Administration to modernise our state and prepare it for the envisaged role as the investors’ destination. That is why we have set a standard for our roads to be six-lane with accompanying road furniture.”
“If the LP is working in sync with our people and understand the needs of the electorate, why is it that when our people are happy with the road projects and its attendant benefits, the LP, which is rarely known in the state, is casting aspersions on the good intention behind the programme?”
“Our people know what they want and who is serving their interest.
They will not listen to mischief makers who are pretending to be critics.”
Meanwhile, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, has flayed the “profligacy” of Ogun State Government in its ongoing urban infrastructural renewal projects in the state.
Reacting to the controversy surrounding the construction of a pedestrian for N260m, Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, described the government action as a “misplaced priority and shows the depth of shallowness” in the thinking of those charge of political leadership in Nigeria.
Adeniran said, “How can Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led government claim it constructed a pedestrian bridge with air-conditioner? Does it mean the government does not have any other pressing issue to attend to? It is not only a misplaced priority but a pointer to frivolity in the act of governance in our country. It is absurd that a pedestrian bridge could be built with N260m in a country where many citizens are living in abject poverty.”