Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Delta State, on Tuesday, described the two-day visit of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the state to inaugurate projects as a waste of public funds.
Chief Obasanjo who was in the state on the invitation of the People Democratic Party (PDP)-led state government of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, commissioned the 9.4km dualised Old Lagos-Asaba Road, the 5.27km dualised Owa-Ekei/Owa-Alero Road and the Stephen Keshi Stadium.
While the Old Lagos-Asaba Road project was first awarded in 2009 by the administration Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, and was said to be about 20 percent completed as at 2015, the Owa road was awarded by the present administration of Okowa in 2016.
The stadium project was first awarded during the James Ibori administration in 2002 when Obasanjo laid the foundation stone as incumbent president but the contract suffered series of repudiation.
But the APC in the state queried the commissioning exercise, saying that it was another show of shame by the PDP.
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The party in a statement by the Head of Strategy and Communication, Nick Ovuakporie, on behalf of the state chairman, Jones Ode Erue lampooned the governor over his insensitivity to the plights of pensioners.
Ovuakporie claimed that pensioners were dying of starvation, yet the PDP-led state government could charter a private jet worth over $11,000 just to bring in Obasanjo “to re-commission projects that had once been commissioned and whose cost value were highly inflated.”
The party took further swipe at the PDP for “celebrating a resurfaced road project located in the governor’s home town and the Stephen Keshi Stadium which has been repeatedly awarded by successive PDP administrations since 1999 and funds embezzled as the only projects executed and showcased by a government in possession of huge federal releases and billions of internally generated revenues since over 3 years of being in the saddle of governance.”
Erue appealed to Deltans to re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari and vote overwhelmingly for all APC candidates in the state.
He urged Deltans to reject Okowa’s deceptive style of politics, but unite to vote out the PDP as “we prepare for the 2019 general elections in order to institutionalize good governance being offered by the APC in the state.”