BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Politics
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Accused of spending N78 million on personal website, former Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, has been having a torrent bad publicity, he assures everyone that there is nothing in the allegations
| By Olu Ojewale | Aug 24, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |
FORMER Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is under fire. Fashola has been under scrutiny of members of the opposition since it was alleged that his government spent N78.3 million to upgrade www.tundefashola.com his personal website in 2014.
The contract for the refurbishment of the website was awarded to Info Access Plus Limited by the office of the Chief of Staff to the former governor. However, Info Access Plus Limited said its quotation for the job was N12.5 million, and that the state eventually paid only N10 million for the job.
The alleged expenditure was first revealed by the BudgIT, an analytic firm and confirmed by the Lagos State public procurement office’s website.
Since the publication on Saturday, August 8, there has been an outrage that Fashola could approve and spend such a hefty sum of money from the state’s treasury for an upgrade of his personal website.
Other questionable expenditures allegedly incurred by the Fashola administration included N1.2 billion on the construction of pedestrian bridges along Oti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway. There was no mention of the number of bridges.
Similarly, the government allegedly awarded contract for the provision of wall signage in three magistrate courts at the cost of N17 million.
Further, the Fashola administration allegedly spent N3.46 billion for the construction of a beach resort in Ilase and N61 million for a Range Rover SUV and two Toyota Hilux trucks as the official vehicles of the Chief Judge of Lagos State.
In the same vein, the government of Fashola was alleged to have spent another N85 million on the repair and replacement of street signs.
As if that was not serious enough, other curious expenses, according to the document is that the past government spent N330 million for the development of the residence of the former governor and Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, his deputy and another sum of N94 million on “printer consumables”.
Irked by the revelation, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption, CSNAC, a coalition of anti-corruption organisations in Nigeria, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the alleged “questionable expenditures” of the Fashola administration.
In the petition dated August 10, and addressed to the EFCC, the CSNAC called for the probe of the controversial N78 million spent on the personal website of Fashola.
The CSNAC listed some other suspicious spending by the immediate past government of Fashola. The group’s petition came following a similar outcry by another anti-corruption group, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL.
Debo Adeniran, executive director of the CACOL, had said in an interview recently that his organisation’s independent investigation showed that the 1.36 kilometre Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge cost N6 billion, and not the N25 billion as claimed by the Fashola administration.
Adeniran said that several petitions had been written to the EFCC to probe the various projects in the state in the face of the more than N500 billion debt left by the Fashola government were ignored.
The Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project, another organisation, had also alleged that the state refused to disclose details of the US$200 million World Bank education fund during Fashola’s tenure.
“The CSNAC is hereby requesting that these allegations against the former governor of Lagos State be thoroughly investigated and the falsity or verity proven,” Olanrewaju Suraju, chairman, CSNAC, said, adding: “We would like to believe that this petition would be given utmost attention as speculations in the media and among the general public is that members of the governing party currently enjoy special consideration and therefore not investigated by the anti-corruption agencies.
“This perception, if allowed to fester, will be detrimental and dangerous to the spirit of the new wave in fight against corruption led by the current administration.”
The news of the expenditure has elicited outrage from Nigerians, with many using their social media accounts to lambast Fashola, who is widely tipped as one of few upright politicians who could be given a cabinet position by President Mohammadu Buhari.
For instance, Chukwudi Iwuchukwu, a blogger, said on his Facebook page that “he consensus is that the cost was grossly exaggerated and over-inflated. A WordPress website, like http://tundefashola.com/ should not cost more than N3million, according to expert opinions.”
A Twitter handle said, @cchukudebelu, said “1. The lesson from Fashola is “all have sinned & fallen short of God’s glory”, now let us seek redemption. My point: there are no saints.”
Tolu Ogunlesi, a columnist said on his handle, @toluogunlesi,: “How can you build a WordPress website for 78 million naira? Are you mad? Or am I the mad one for thinking you might be mad?”
Chudi Okonkwo in his reaction said: “Of course we know the IT firm was not paid N 78 million. Somebody skimmed off the balance of N68 million, but billed the state N78 million. The buck stops at Fashola’s table. He has questions to answer. The EFCC do your job please. I think its high time Lamorde was thrown overboard.”
Onyekachi Ubani, a lawyer and human rights activist, urged Fashola to come clean and defend himself on the issue. Ubani, who said he would support the former governor’s nomination as minister, said it would be wrong to drop Fashola on the account of the allegation. “If President Buhari is looking for 100 percent clean person, he cannot get it. Fashola is better than many politicians we have been having. I believe he will be a good minister,” he said.
Fashola in a statement on Thursday night, August 13, denied the allegation, comparing his accusers with pigs who get “happy” when they get you “dirty.” In a statement he personally signed, Fashola admitted that, indeed, a contract valued at that amount was awarded, but it involved the provision of other services beyond the upgrade of the website.
The former governor said only N12 million was actually awarded for the upgrade of the site while other services such as the handover countdown clock, mobile apps for Google, for iOS Ipad, for Microsoft, and Blackberry and the annual maintenance cost for managing the site made up the total of N78 million.
He said due process was followed before the contract was awarded and that the procurement agency, PPA, did not raise any objection as at the time the contract was awarded.
“It was for these services that the contract was issued for N78 million, which the Lagos State procurement agency gave a No Objection based on the advice of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who are the government adviser on ICT matters.
“In publishing the contract award which was the government tradition under my watch, the procurement agency’s website summarised it as ‘upgrade’ only without detailing the other services and this has been distorted by the agents of hate as their suspected ‘smoking gun,”he said.
On the accusation that the website was personal to him, Fashola said the site helped him to do his job as governor and to respond to the people.
“To date, there have been 27.666 million hits on this website, with 1,844 videos, 34,381 photographs, 2,531 Press releases and 595 speeches among other items of public communication.”
The former governor alleged that some people had been paid “large amount of money” to deliberately distort allegations without evidence against him.
He said the website upgrade issue was the culmination of a string of other unfounded allegations against him that started emanating toward the end of his tenure in office.
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