Babatunde Fashola, SAN, minister of works, housing and power, on Thursday lauded Ayo Fayose, Ekiti State governor, for the execution of some legacy projects such as the flyover and the dualisation of the Ado-Ikere Road among others.

The minister, who was taken round some of the projects by the governor, told newsmen while on a working visit to Ekiti state: “We saw all the projects being executed by the state government. This is the kind of collaboration that the Federal Government welcomes. What is important is how much service we deliver to the people we are to serve. Of course, roads are shared among the tiers of government, but what is important is the service to the people.

“In the area of housing, the state ought to lead, but there is nothing wrong with the federal government coming to support. It will create job opportunities for different categories of people and it will boost the local economy too,” he said.

Asked when the federal government will reimburse the state for the projects, Fashola stated that there was due process to be followed.

Earlier, during a courtesy call on Fayose, the governor expressed confidence in the commitment made by the federal government to fix some of the roads linking Ekiti to other states.

Fayose also commended the minister for taking time to travel by road in order to assess the roads.

He noted that if such decisive steps had been taken earlier enough, there would have been more infrastructural development in the state.

He called on the minister to ensure the roads were fixed as promised and speedily too, as he also solicited for repayment of costs the state government incurred repairing federal roads.

The governor promised to channel whatever funds recovered from the federal government to roads in other communities of the state.

Earlier, the minister said engineering designs had been completed on the Ado-Igede-Aramoko-Itawure and Ado-Akure roads and contractors are expected to move to sites as soon as the 2017 budget is passed.

He said the Buhari administration was ready to help the state, noting that ‘the federal government was committed to redeeming the expenses incurred by state governments on federal roads’.

He commended the state government for being proactive in fixing some of the roads.

Fashola’s comment on Fayose’s legacy projects came on the heels of a similar view expressed by Yosola Akinbi, special adviser to the vice president on Policy, who also visited the state on Wednesday and who inspected some of the projects too.

Akinbi also praised Fayose for embarking on those developmental projects. — Frontiers

— Mar 23, 2017 @ 5:10 GMT

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