Group flays Gov. Ahmed over N6.7billion proposed street-light project

The Joint Action Against Corruption in Kwara state ( JAACK) has disclosed that the administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has continued to show to Kwarans that it is not people-centred.

In a statement issued on Monday in Ilorin by its Organising Secretary, Mr. Joe Mahmud, the group said the ‘Light Up Kwara’ project is the height of insensitivity by a government elected by the people.

ROYAL NEWS reports that the state government at the close of its last Executive Council meeting proposed to spend N 6.7 billion on 78 km street light project as well as N 2.8 billion on the construction of KWASU campuses in Ilesha-Baruba and Osi.

According to the group, “The other time the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki said he has put N1.1bn in the federal budget to lit up his constituency which is made up of four LGAs in the Ilorin emirate council.

” The same area covered by Saraki’s project will be attended to by the state government. The state government will lit 3,000 poles in addition to what Saraki will be doing and that will cost a mouth watering N6bn while the construction of new campuses for Kwara State University (KWASU) in 2 locations will cost paltry N3.5bn.

“It is clear that this government is moving in a direction to drown the boat of the state and everything therein. What is the connection between street lighting and the level of poverty in the state that have pushed responsible adults into stealing pots of Amala and 5 litres of vegetable oil?”

The statement condemned the state government’s attitude that is fond of copying everything from other states not considering the peculiarity of her own state.

“When Kwara State government under Dr. Bukola Saraki said it was ‘Clean and Green’. Ornamental plants were planted on all major ways in Ilorin. A whopping N70m went into the project, where are those plants today? Kwara State government expended so much on traffic lights some years back, hardly could it be maintained for 2 years. Where are the traffic lights today?

” If Lagos State is aggressive about street lighting, yes it is deserving of a mega city whose night GDP alone can pay the monthly allocation of another state in the savannah for a whole year. What are the types of trade that will flourish in Kwara in the nights when they argued it is for the sake of the economy?

“Though there is high level of conspiracy in the way the state is governed and high handedness in the corridor of power – those attributes should not stop all residents of the state from asking questions when anti-people policies and projects are forced down our system.

“We are using this medium to alert all lovers of Kwara that is another project aimed at freting away the the proceeds from the tax recently imposed on everyone as the project is ill-intentioned and wrongly applied”, the group added.