Osun Assembly wants N20 billion abandoned federal projects completed

The Osun State House of Assembly has resolved to press the federal government to revive projects worth over N20.318 billion abandoned in the state.

At its plenary on Tuesday presided over by the deputy Speaker, Akintunde Adegboye, the House agreed to write Governor Rauf Aregbesola to speak with the presidency over the projects. On its part, the House agreed to make representation to the National Assembly.

The decision of the House followed an alarm by Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, the member representing Obokun Constituency, over the deplorable state of federal roads, water schemes and housing projects in the state.

Following the alarm, the House invited officials of the relevant federal agencies in the state and state government ministries who disclosed the costs of the affected projects as N16.519 billion for roads, N2.955 billion for housing and N844.342 million for water schemes.

The abandoned projects include the dualisation of Mayfair Junction-Lagere-Iremo-Enuwa-Ilesha bye pass road in Ile-Ife (22km), Gbongan-Iwo-Oyo S/B Road (46km), rehabilitation of Oshogbo-Ilesha road (27km), rehabilitation of Oyan Township pipeline and Iwo Township Water Supply Scheme.

Mr. Oyintiloye noted that Osun was among states that had the fewest federal projects, and that even the few had been abandoned.

He said the projects should be revived to compliment the efforts of the state government for job creation, good road network, clean water and improved revenue.

Contributing to the deliberation, Kamardeen Akanbi, member representing Ede North constituency, said the Akoda-Ede-Airport-Osogbo road was also in a deplorable condition.

In his response to issues raised by the members, the Federal Controller of Works in the state, Wasiu Atitebi said contractors handling some of the federal road projects abandoned the sites because they were being owed.

He however noted that the federal government recently remobilised some of the contractors and that efforts were being made to ensure that work resumed on the rest.

Mr. Atitebi named the Gbongan-Iwo road, Ogbomosho/Oko/Ilobu/Ifon/Osogbo road and Osogbo-Ilesa road as some of the projects on which works have resumed.

He added that the contractor handling the construction of bridge over River Erinle in Ilie had also been remobilised but had not returned to site because he applied for augmentation and was waiting for approval.

Also responding, the representative of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Isaac Ayodele, said the agency submitted an estimate of N6 billion for the maintenance of about 20 roads in the state, but that only two of these roads were eventually captured in the 2016 budget.

He said the agency was however making efforts to ensure that the roads not captured in the budget as capital projects were attended to by direct labour.

The representative of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA), Adekunle Ogunnubi, said a majority of the water projects under the purview of the authority were constituency projects facilitated by federal lawmakers.

He said lack of capacity to continue with some of the water projects propelled the authority to transfer them to the state government.

The representative of Osun Water Corporation, Odejide Asafa, confirmed that OORBDA had abandoned some of the water projects to the state government.

Mr. Asafa said that state officials and OORBDA often disagreed on the level of work on some of the water projects, lamenting that some of the projects had not served the purpose of giving people clean water.