Why ‘am being blackmailed’ over road project in my constituency, Hon. Akande-Sadipe

Member representing Oluyole Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe has debunked media reports that she connived with officials of the Federal Ministry of Works to inflate contract of Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonomwen road project in her Federal Constituency in Oyo State.

The lawmaker stated that the controversial 45 km road contract which pre-dated her assumption of office as a lawmaker was awarded in 2018 to DC, Engineering Limited with a completion period of two years, but has been stalled for over five years despite mobilization and advance payment by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the contractor.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday, Akande-Sadipe revealed that the contractor hardly completed one kilometer of the road in the last five years, a development that has made the project to be trailed with plethora of petitions from her constituents as the tardiness of the road has caused deaths and untold hardship to the residents of the area.

She explained that her intervention was within the mandate of her office as a lawmaker in protecting the interest of her constituents, hence, she raised a motion expressing concerns over the deplorable state of the road and calling on the lower legislative chamber to investigate with documentary evidence of payments made to the contractor.

Part of her prayers in the motion partly read: “Urges the House to establish an Ad-Hoc Committee to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the consistent failure of the contractors to fulfill their contractual obligations.

“The investigation should specifically focus on the construction and rehabilitation of the Olomi Olojuoro road, referred to as the Ijebu-Igbo Ita Egba-Owonowen Ibadan road, with the following contracts and budget allocations.”

As well as her intention was, she expressed disappointment that she was being blackmailed by the company which failed to meet up with the terms of the contractual agreement to the benefit of the people of Oluyole area.

In a paper she presented at the public hearing on the controversial road project partly read: “My attention has been drawn to a letter dated 29th August, 2023 written by the solicitors to DC Engineering Limited Co and Oba (King) Adesegun Alowonle, the Emure of Ijebu, the person believed to be the owner of the company.

“This letter accused me of total falsehood in an attempt to steer this hallowed committee away from, the true situation on ground with regards to Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonowen road in Oluyole Federal Constituency.

“The letter did not address the substance of the several petitions and motions in anyway, including the most recent of 13th July, 2023, rather what they went into was to disparage my person and smear my name and engage in scandalous defamation of my character by alleging that my objective in intervening on behalf of Oluyole is to promote a particular contractor – Aereatech Nigeria Limited, to the Federal Ministry of Works.

The lawmaker denied having any “direct or indirect relationship with the said contractor, and I am not in any way related to the said contractor. I have never introduced any such contractor.”

The lawmaker wondered how they resorted to maligning her name rather than executing the contract for which the contractor has been substantially mobilized, adding that the competence of DC Engineering calls for investigation given that some part of the road projects were sublet to other minor construction firms in contravention of the contractual terms.

Akande-Sadipe further recalled how she initiated an inspection visit to the site in 2021 with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Works, the Commissioner of Public Complaints Commission, Folawiyo and representatives of the DC Engineering Limited, only to discover that DC Engineering Company was accused of collecting money from the communities to fix feeder road culverts which was removed in the course of their rehabilitation work.

She said: “The Commissioner Public Complaints Commission, Mr. Folawiyo and Representatives of DEC Engineering Ltd were also present and we did the inspection of the road together.

“During this visit the DC Engineering wa also accused of collecting money from the communities to restore the feeder road culverts that had been removed by them in the course of the construction work. The communities claimed to have contributed funds to replace such culverts to alleviate their suffering.

“This was also tabled during this meeting and the representatives of DC Engineering promised to refund them. To date, no such reimbursement has been made and no remedial work done on those areas as these culverts were yet to be replaced”, the lawmaker maintained.