Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has lamented how his predecessor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and the All Progressives Congress frustrated his efforts to single-handedly construct road to Ajia, his village in Ibadan in 2014
Makinde added that although the paper works had been completed and the budget had been drawn, ‘‘but the then administration did not give approval for the construction of about three-kilometre road that would have linked Ajia Village with Ibadan-Ife Road’’.
The governor made the disclosure during a reception organised for him by the Ajia and Its Environs Descendants’ Union under the leadership of Mr. Amos Fakayode, an engineer, at Ajia, Ibadan at the weekend.
He also explained that the time he wanted to embark on the road construction in conjunction with another illustrious son of Ajia, Pa Theophilus Akinyele, was about the same time the popular Aleshinloye Market got burnt in Ibadan in 2014 During the inferno, it was discovered that the fire service station in the market could not respond to the fire disaster as it lacked adequate water.
Makinde stated that he decided to sink a borehole for the fire service station so that the fire fighters would have access to water as well as to adequately respond to such disaster in future.
“Pa Theophilus Akinyele is here, and privately we wanted to construct the road. In fact, we have done the budget. But the government in power then did not give us approval to do it. We wanted to defy the approval and construct the road at all cost at a time. But there was a time that Aleshinloye Market was razed. When I went to commiserate with the traders, I asked them why the inferno could not be contained on time, and they said the fire service station did not have water. Then, I made arrangements to sink borehole for them. The borehole had been dug and water had been found. They wanted to begin the casing when hoodlums went to attack them. The hoodlums vandalised the borehole drilling machine and filled the borehole with stones. Then, we did not want hoodlums to vandalise equipment of anybody because we wanted to construct road from Ajia Junction to Ajia community’’.
