The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has accused the state governor, Ademola Adeleke of politicising some projects of his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola and surreptitiously planning to demolish a flyover constructed by the former governor.
The opposition party made these allegations while addressing journalists in Osogbo on Wednesday.
Speaking for the party, APC chieftain and the immediate past Commissioner for Works in the state, Remi Omowaiye berated Adeleke for raising safety concerns as regards Olaiya bridge constructed by Oyetola’s administration, saying the decision to ban heavy-duty trucks from plying the flyover was ill-conceived and borne out of desire to tarnish his predecessor’s image.
Governor Adeleke had directed the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to ban heavy-duty trucks from plying the Olaiya bridge at the state capital, citing safety reasons arising from the technical reports on the state of the bridge.
The governor who presided over a security council meeting in Osogbo said the decision became necessary to protect the bridge from possible collapse and avoid untoward happenings with continuous passage by heavy trucks.
Adeleke, in a statement by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, had said a long lasting review of the technical status of the bridge was being conducted by the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.
Reacting, Omowaiye who was the commissioner that supervised the flyover project disagreed with Adeleke on the quality of the infrastructure, said all necessary examinations as to the standard of the bridge were carried out and that results showed that the facility is very strong.
He described Adeleke’s approach on the bridge as political and one targeted to paint Oyetola bad in the eyes of the people of Osun.
Omowaiye said Adeleke doesn’t understand governance and that he would be booted out in 2026, claiming that the infrastructural projects embarked upon by the governor are white elephant projects that would eventually fail.
“The decision is political and to tarnish Oyetola’s name. We carried out all necessary examinations and ensured that the flyover is very strong. Adeleke should not allow his dirty politics to destroy our economy. The flyover is assisting the economy and it should not be destroyed. We did pre and post reports and we went to the lab to ensure we have the best bridge built for the people of Osun. The Ministry of Works in Osun cannot say the facility is substandard because they were all aware of the quality assurance. What is important to us is the development of Osun. Oyetola’s legacies should not be destroyed and we appeal to them not to set this state on fire,” he said.
Defending further its quality job on the flyover, Omowaiye said, “We did 150 percent above the load bearing capacity, we carried out various test, we went to FUTA lab, University of Lagos lab and Lagos state materials testing lab which is the best lab in Nigeria all the results are available.
“I challenge Osun State government to come up with the results of the lab they went to, to test all the flyovers they are doing, we want the people of Osun to ask them.
“It came to us as a shock. I was in Osun few weeks ago and we discovered that the whole flyover and its environments have been abandoned; the Solar no longer come up, everywhere is dirty and disgusting, solar light is not coming up, it doesn’t have anything to do with structure capacity of the flyover.
“We are not saying government should not do whatever they want to do but this money belongs to the people of Osun it must be spent judiciously. Don’t come and say you want to demolish Olaiya flyover because of politics. I want them to come out with the technical report that says that bridge has fault, I challenge any engineer that claimed that bridge has fault should come up with the report and put his NSE number.”
Also speaking, another chieftain of APC, Adebayo Adeleke who was Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs under Oyetola’s administration, submitted that Adeleke jumped the gun in iis decision on the bridge saying the governor ought to have conducted a test of its quality before pronouncing that trucks should be barred from plying it. He should have appointed committee first before announcing that heavy vehicles should not ply the bridge.
He said, “It should not have been decided at security committee meeting. It shows that the government of Adeleke doesn’t understand governance. They said they will appoint committee that will make quality test and check the strength and then issue reports.”
The former commissioner accused Adeleke of hiring a company without profile and CAC registration that has not not gotten any contract before to handle some of the ongoing projects in the state.
“One of the companies Adeleke hired deals with supply of fertilizer and it is even non-existent. Adeleke should come out and prove whether the companies handling his projects running into billions of naira are not fertilizer suppliers and cyber cafe operator,” he challenged the governor.
