Oyo state Not in Loggerheads with World Bank over 76b naira Project Fund — CPS

…describes Alao as fake news peddler

The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde of Oyo state; Mr. Taiwo Adisa has refuted the claims of a chieftain of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, Oyedele Hakeem Alao who claimed that the state was about to lose a World Bank Loan totaling $200 million.

Adisa regarded the statements as untrue, unfounded and a blatant mispresentation of flawed knowledge by the AD chieftain adding that the statement is another gimmick by Alao to keep his name afloat in the media spaces through mischievous propangadas, lies and fake news.

According to a statement which was made available to State House correspondents on Wednesday, the governor’s media aide said that Governor Makinde had in a detailed explanation on a recently held state television programme, “The Governor Explains” clarified the real state of the said world bank loan.

According to Adisa, the governor had explained that the total loan was $200 million and that before he came into office the previous administration had already spent $50 million and also committed $100 million to projects. So the remaining is $50 million, which the management of the project wants to use to do some works.

“Project current government had already spent over a 50million Dollars. They had also committed another 100milion Dollars out of the money. So, the remaining left was 50 million Dollars they wanted to use to do some works. That was the only amount we met on the ground.

Recall that the Commissioner for Finance in the State, Mr. Akinola Ojo, who supervises the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP), which is managing the loan, stated in a Press release on February 15 that the management of the project was following due process in awarding the last batch of contracts. He also stated that the state government and the World Bank were not at loggerheads over the project, adding that due process is strictly being followed.

The Finance Commissioner had also stated that it was unfortunate that some media houses misrepresented facts and figures to drag the project into unnecessary controversy. A coordinator of the project, Dayo Ayorinde had equally said that the claims that the state would lose the said funds were unfounded, adding that the report was false in its entirety.

“It negates the reality of the situation in the bidding process as well as the process of engaging contractors for the Second Pool of works at the IUFMP.” “To the best of our knowledge, there was NO QUERY to the State Government from the World Bank. The Bidding Process is on course; the two parties involved (the Oyo State Government and the World Bank) are positively engaging the Bid Evaluation Report (BER) through the PIU, and the process is within the schedule,” the coordinator had said in the statement made public in February.”