By Muhammed Saheed
The speaker of Kwara state House of Assembly, Yakubu Danladi alleged the former state governor, Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed, hidden under the guise of construction of 33km Ilesha /Gwanara Road contract in the Kaiama and Baruten Local Government Area of the state to embezzle the resources of the state.
The speaker made this allegation known while speaking with the journalists during the celebration of a year of being a driver of the 9th Assembly in the state.
“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. The youth in the area blocked our former House of Representatives member as it can be seen in a viral video.
“It is a 33 km road, which the former governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, used as a conduit to siphon Kwara resources because N1.8bn had been paid to the contractor with nothing being done on the road.”
Mr Danladi insisted that the people of the area had never seen an asphalt road before because the former administration didn’t carry out any work on the road. He, however, assured the people of the area that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq had re-awarded the road contract with asphalt tarring at a lower cost and would be completed before this year elapses.
However, the Chief Press Secretary to a former governor, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, refuted the claim of the speaker and tagged it as a political attempt to please his people.
In his statement, Alhaji Oba said the administration awarded the contract for the road and the contractor was paid in relation to the work done, adding, “We paid according to specification for the job as approved by the state Ministry of Works.
“What the speaker has said is political to please his people. We had 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 short.”