The Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has admitted to building the Moshood Abiola International Airport at Ido-Osun, Osun State, for N11.5 billion. But he denied increasing the contract sum to siphon money as allege by the state Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
A consultant to the state government on information, Mr. Sunday Akere, who spoke on behalf of the governor, said on Tuesday.
He said the increase in the contract sum was necessitated by the inflation caused by the fall of the naira.
Akere said, “The PDP in Osun should be ignored, they are just seeking relevance. They should find out how much PDP states like Akwa Ibom, Gombe and others built their airports.
“When former President Goodluck Jonathan was in power, he said he added an additional airstrip to the Nnamdi Azikiwi International Airport, Abuja with N36billion. We should be commended for building an airport with N11.5billion.
“If we are building a complete airport with a hanger and other facilities for N11.5billion, then we should be commended. The governor deserves commendation.”
Akere also said the initial cost of the airport was underestimated.
But the PDP had accused the governor of increasing unilaterally the contract sum of the airport from N4.5billion to N15.5billion.
The Director of Media and Strategy of the Osun PDP, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, had said this in a statement on Sunday.
The statement read, “We are aware that Governor Rauf Aregbesola, on January 8, 2016 through a letter with reference number SP/S96/1/vi/348 re-awarded the airport contract to the same contractor and a payment of N472m was paid as take-off sum.
“The same company had earlier been paid N2.7billion for the same project without any serious work done on the project.
The PDP also accused the governor of inflating the contract sum in order to embezzle the bailout funds it got from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The opposition party lamented that workers in the employ of the state were languishing in hunger as a result of unpaid salaries.
The party had said, “We are calling on the President and anti-graft agencies to send a secret team to the site of the so-called Moshood Abiola International Airport, Ido-Osun, to confirm what the government and the airport company had done with the N2.7billion taken from the purse of the state on December 14, 2012.
“Out of the amount, N2.5billion was sourced as a loan from a bank to be repaid monthly at N100m from the SURE-P funds. That loan is now part of the N88billion restructured for the state by the Central Bank for repayment till the year 2034.”
