A chieftain of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Oyo State, Oyedeke Hakeem Alao has raised an alarm that Oyo State is about to lose a world bank project worth N76bn.

Alao, who contested the gubernatorial election in 2019claimed that contractors who are supposed to handle the project which is centred on environmental flood control have been selected by the World Bank.

He, however, alleged that Governor, Seyi Makinde has insisted that the project must be handled by his preferred candidate or the state loses the USD200m project.

Alao who claimed the Oyo State could lose the project due to Makinde’s insistence to award the contract to his preferred candidate also blamed the House of Assembly for their inability to serve as a watchdog to the Makinde led executive.

The AD chieftain in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Sunday through his Media Aide, Omotayo Iyanda, stressed that many abnormalities such as the appointment of parks managers which the court recently pronounced as illegal have been going on in Makinde’s administration.

Alao who remarked that the Makinde government has become synonymous with errors, blunders and somersaults of decisions and policies which are clear indices that the governor and his team lack what it takes to lead Oyo State, said the present members of the State House of Assembly have failed in their checks and balances duty on the executive.

He said, “The governorship candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2019 in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, has echoed an alarm that the Oyo State Government under Engr Seyi Makinde will lose N76bn World Bank (WB) project which will be beneficial to the people of the state in the area of environmental flood control.

“After the contractors that would handle the project had been selected based on global procedures and practices of the World Bank, Governor Makinde reportedly insisted that if the project would not be handled by his preferred candidates, then the USD200m project could be taken to another state.

“The current Speaker, Honourable Speaker Adebo Ogundoyin, did not have the required confidence, experience and sagacity to face Engineer Seyi Makinde on any serious state matters as he always had his cap in hands behaving in the presence of the governor like a baby lawmaker, contrary to the experience when we had members like Chief Gbolagunte (a former speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly) from Eruwa, Ibarapa land, in the 1980s.

“Last year, we queried the decision to establish the PMS, stating that it was an unconstitutional and arbitrary use of power to do so but in the usual characteristic of this government, they did not listen.

“Now that the establishment and their operations had been invalidated by the court of law, Engr Seyi Makinde owed the people of the state explanations on how he would re-coup the state money and loans he had invested in the project.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Taiwo Adisa in a reply to DAILY POST’s inquiry, said the state will only verify the process of selection of the contractors at the meeting with the world bank.

He said, “It is the management of the Project and World Bank that independently determine the award of contracts?

“That the state will only verify the process at a meeting with the World Bank? Pls, let your friend get something else to comment about.”

DailyPost