By Abdulrasheed Akogun

The Kwara State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has cried out over the governance of the state, describing Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq as a treasury looter.

The party made this allegation through its State Chairman, Rt. Babatunde Mohammed via a press conference in Ilorin, yesterday, stressing that the series of scandals being unraveled on a daily basis against the Governor and his government is despicable.

He said “We are constrained to address this press conference to alert Kwarans and other members of the public to the unending revelations of cases of unconscionable corrupt practices and abuse of office going on under the watch of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

“It is despicable to note that on a daily basis, Kwarans are inundated with disclosures of series of fraudulent activities ranging from contract inflation, diversion of public funds, extortion of vulnerable masses, among other sleazy acts being perpetrated by the governor and corrupt officials of his administration.

“Just a few days ago, Kwara’s social media space was awash with reports of how the Abdulrazaq-led government violated the Kwara State Public Procurement Law 2018 in the award of contract for the supply of 35 BelTransfo Transformers to The Best International Energy Services Limited. Apart from violating the public procurement law, the government has also failed to ensure the delivery of the transformers over 14 months after the contractor was paid about N140million of the total N197.5million approved as contract sum.

“In addition, there was a media report last week that exposed the sorry state of the Kwara State Indoor Sport Hall despite the claim of the government that it has released N72million for its renovation. This is yet another sad episode of the endless tale of stinking rot under the APC-led government.

“Gentlemen of the press, I am sure you are also aware of the public outcry that has greeted the government’s supply of rickety mini-buses otherwise known as ‘Korope’ to some set of transporters in the State at an overpriced rate of N3.7million. The Abdulrazaq government is hiding under the guise of support and empowerment to extort the vulnerable transporters.

“More infuriating is the fact that each of the transporters who got the vehicles are expected to pay the N3.7million within 18months. A further breakdown shows that each of the transporters will be paying back about N52,000 weekly, amounting to N205,000 monthly. Aside from the fact the vehicles given to the transporters are of low quality and cannot stand the test of time, it will be almost impossible for the transporters to meet the deadline for completion of the payment going by the repayment plan given them. This further shows how fraudulent and insensitive the government and its partners on the project are.

“As we have always noted, the Abdulrazaq-led administration has a proclivity for inflating contract sums to loot the State’s treasury. Kwarans can still recall the government’s claim of renovating Government High School, with the sum of N361million. If it costs the government that much to renovate a school, how much will it cost it to build a new one? The same Government also inflated the contracts for the renovation of Patigi Secondary School by ₦31,980,799 and other schools it claimed to have renovated. This is in addition to several other projects awarded by the Governor at inflated costs including the renovation of Banquet Hall, Ilorin, Ilesha-Gwanara road, College of Education, Ilorin road that is now filled with potholes less than a year after it was constructed. Not only are the sums of contracts awarded by the government inflated, the contracts are also awarded in secrecy to cronies of the governor and without due process in blatant violation of the State’s procurement law” he added