Published June 21, 2020
The Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on Public Communications, Segun Dipe, tells ABIODUN NEJO since the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party-led administration in the state allegedly abandoned the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, it should not tell the current All Progressives Congress-led government what to do about its reconstruction
_What is wrong with the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja?_
There is no issue with the Governor’s Lodge other than the fact that it became dilapidated. It was abandoned for four years during the Ayodele Fayose-led administration. During that time, the roof was off and it was always flooded. You can imagine how a house abandoned and exposed to the rain and sun would be. It became uninhabitable, so it needed a replacement. Then it was considered that we should have both the Governor’s Lodge and the Deputy Governor’s Lodge there; that means it would be expanded to accommodate the two of them. So, they had to acquire a land beside it, add it to the existing land and do a reconstruction. The reconstruction was provided for in the budgets of 2019 and 2020.
_The PDP alleges that the present administration has sold the property…_
He who alleges must prove. Let them provide proof that it was sold. The place was advertised for construction; there was a bidding process and a contractor was selected. The contractor went to the site, there was a bill of quantities and the procedure was followed. So, if they have any contrary information, I think they should provide it. You can’t sell a government property like that! The PDP just wants to engage in propaganda; otherwise they would have confirmed all the information in the public domain.
_What about the allegation that there is no signboard at the site informing the public about the details of the contract?_
Is that provided for legally? There are so many government projects that don’t have signboards; that is left to the discretion of the contractor. It is not the client that is going to put a signboard at the project site. And I don’t think there is a crisis if there is no board at a project site if construction is going on there and it is not a source of contention.
_But the PDP is saying the lodge should not be the priority of Ekiti now, what do you think about that?_
It is the government that determines what the priorities are, not any meddlesome person or an interloper. Although Fayemi government seeks communities’ inputs into budgets, the PDP needs to do a thorough job on how the budget was awarded. I think you can talk about priority if there have been denials or deprivations in some aspects. Under Fayemi’s administration, full salaries are being paid and all other responsibilities are being handled. When the last PDP administration was constructing the bridge which led to nowhere in Ado-Ekiti, salaries were not paid; that was when anybody could have spoken about priorities. For Abuja house, do you want the governor to continue to pay rent in Abuja? Now that Abuja house is being reconstructed and it is not affecting salaries or road constructions in the state, how can you talk of priorities?
_What is your reaction to the allegations that the 2019, 2020 budgetary provisions are mere conduits to steal public funds and that the Abuja structure was pulled down last month?_
Do they want the place to have been pulled down before a provision would be made? It is the duty of the contractor to build. If there is no provision, how would you now award the contract? I think they should try and get hold of the document – there must be a contractual agreement. What is the agreement, when is the contractor starting, has the contractor violated any of the contract agreement? That is what they should try to understand and we have told them to use their powers through the Freedom of Information Law which is available in Ekiti. How can people who were not alive to their responsibilities now come round to tell somebody who is alive to their responsibility what to do? The PDP had the opportunity to do something about it; they didn’t build or repair the place. They abandoned the house and their governor rented his own personal house to the state.
_Why didn’t you confront Fayose with the allegation before now?_
He did it as a governor. It was like saying you want to confront him for building a bridge. Fayose was entitled to stay in an accommodation in Abuja. As I said, the lodge does not befit a governor, but the best way he could do it was to rent an apartment. He had an executive council and a House of Assembly that approved it; we are talking about the legality of an action, and not the rightness or wrongness of it. Was it legal or illegal for him to stay in an accommodation in Abuja? The way he thought might be different from the way we thought. If they had not raised it, we would not have mentioned it, so, why should we start asking him to refund the money he spent to pay for accommodation when he was in Abuja? The same PDP would have said we were just chasing shadows.
_There are allegations that the APC administration is being secretive as far as the Abuja lodge is concerned…_
They are just confirming the saying that ‘if you want to hide anything from a black man, keep it in black and white’. If provisions are in 2019 and 2020 budgets, what secrecy is it shrouded in again? The budgets are available on the state website in the public domain. I saw what they wrote about the 2019, 2020 budgetary provisions, so what secrecy is there again if it is in the public domain? And if we talk of corruption in Ekiti, we know the person who represents corruption in Ekiti and we know whose name stands for due process and transparency in Ekiti. We don’t need to beat around the bush with that. Fayemi stands for due process and there is never corruption in whatever he does. He is transparent, even when he wants to prepare budgets; he visits all the wards and units in the state to get their inputs. Such is the kind of transparency Fayemi is known for.
_What about the contractor?_
As long as the contractor is doing his job and has no problem with his client, we don’t have to bring his name into a matter like this. It is when he has problems with his client that you can call him out.
_Do you see this as PDP’s plot to worm its way into people’s minds so it can regain power?_
Did they do well in the past to justify coming back? Are they putting their house in order to be able to do that? I have never seen the PDP prepared for anything. I always see them making noises and jostling for positions among themselves. So, I don’t see them prepared for power. For instance, who is the leader of the PDP in Ekiti? Who is the PDP chairman in Ekiti? In the local governments and wards, who are their executive council members? You can imagine, it is an Osun person, Diran Odeyemi, that is speaking for them in Ekiti PDP. Does that show preparedness?
(Punch)
