Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has accused the past government of AbdulFatai Ahmed of spending a whopping sum of N6 billion on water reticulation project with nothing to show for it.
In the Governor’s words, “Before we came in we heard that they spent N6bn on reticulation. We couldn’t find anything. In fact, it was only in the budget we saw the money.”
AbdulRazaq made this statement while receiving a delegation from Lafiagi Emirate sent by the Emir of Lafiagi HRH Alhaji Sa’adu Kawu Haliru on a ‘Thank You’ visit.
The delegation after listing unprecedented developmental strides the Governor has made in their community complained of water problem.
Responding the Governor said, “The issue of water problem you talked about was like that all over the state when we came in. No water work was working. It was a sad situation. Staff of water corporation were on strike. You will recall that past military and civilian administrations invested heavily in water while several projects were abandoned and government concentrated on boreholes. We have fixed many water works. But we are taking stock of certain number of more water works that will be fixed and then we will fix the issue of reticulation.
“When we started with Ilorin, our problem was that nearly all the pipes were bad. We had to replace most of them. Before we came in we heard that they spent N6bn on reticulation. We couldn’t find anything. In fact, it was only in the budget we saw the money.”
AbdulRazaq also stated that all the files relating to a transaction entered by the previous government on water reticulation with a contractor (whose name and details were not revealed) could not be found.
“The files have disappeared. It was only recently that we got a letter from one contractor that they were owing him money from that N6bn. That’s the only evidence we have. The whole file is gone.”
