Senator Uncovers Fake Road Projects By FG In Ekiti

Senator Babafemi Ojudu, representing Ekiti Central, today unmasked what could have been a serious fraud perpetrated in the name of Ekiti State in the 2013 budget of the Federal Ministry of Works.

At the budget defence by the ministry and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) before the Senate Committee of Works on Wednesday, it was discovered that the four roads to be designed and constructed in Ekiti in the 2013 budget are not actually in Ekiti. They are roads in other States.

Senator Ojudu, who is a member of the Works Committee, discovered the fraud and drew the attention of the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, to it.

Ojudu asked the minister why roads to be constructed in some States are as high as 20, 15 and 10 respectively while only 4 are listed for Ekiti and all four are fake in that they are in other States but listed under the name of Ekiti.

The four "roads" to be constructed in Ekiti are Ogbomoso/Oko-Ologbo/Osogbo road (Osun), Ikorodu/Imota road (Lagos), Ido Ani/Idogun/Imeri/Ayegunle road (Ondo) and Lafia/Doma road (Nassarawa).

The whole of Southwest shares this same fate as the region gets the least number of roads to be constructed in the 2013 budget.

Ojudu could not hide his disdain as he argued further that that had always been the practise wherever Ekiti is concerned at the federal level, adding that as a member of the Works Committee he would personally see an end to such fraud.

Besides the fake roads, Ojudu also took the Managing Director of FERMA, Engineer Gabriel Amuchi, up on why Ekiti got the least funds for repairs in the 2012 budget, much of which has not been released up till now, few days to the end of the year.

Tempers flared as Ojudu asked the Works Minister whether Ekiti State was not part of Nigeria, stressing that it was high time such deliberate marginalisation of the State and the Southwest stopped.

But for the intervention of the Vice Chairman of the Works Committee, Senator Mohammed Bashir Garba, who calmed Ojudu down and asked that the meeting ended in a close session, it could have become uglier.

It was at the close session that the Minster of Works was said to have apologised and promised to make amends.