Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
A pressure group in Ilorin, the Kwara Gentleman’s Club (KGC), has expressed concerns over not less than N6 billion allegedly spent by former governors Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed on Ilorin water reticulations while in office.
The two former governors were said to have claimed that the amount was expended on the water reticulations to provide potable water for all households in the state capital.
The duo of late had been grossly accused by the incumbent government to have fraudulently spent over N5 billion and other expenses yet to be accounted for on the popular Shonga Farms project describing it as a means by them to cause capital fleece of the state’s common patrimony.
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The Kwara State Governments under Governors Saraki and Ahmed were reported during their time to have allegedly spent the amount to carry out among others, maintenance works on damaged pipelines and construction of new water channels that would connect households in the city centers from the mains of the Kwara State Waterworks under a Water Reticulation Scheme.
However, four years after the project was initiated, residents of the city as well as those in the hinterlsnd who were said to have been promised provision of pottable water still wander round the city in search of water particularly during dry seasons when their private wells run dry.
They could neither access the clean water running from the taps promised them at the time for which such a huge amount was spent nor get any meaningful explanations from the authorities until recently, when a new regime came on board.
For now, considerable water points in the city now have treated water and the incumbent governor AbduRahman AbdulRazaq has been beating his chest for the feat.
Not only that, the governor is credited to have embarked on the reactivations of the existing water projects across the state which were reported to have long collapsed.
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Meanwhile, eyebrows are being raised among citizens, political activists and some pressure groups calling for visits by relevant government graft agencies to look into claims of the government of the previous governors that huge fortunes were spent on projects like channelisation or reticulation of water, construction of a diamond underpass at Geri Alimi roundabout and several other projects.
Ahead of 2019, supply of clean water for domestic and industrial use to households and industrial layouts in the state capital had stopped with residents resorting to buying water from cat pushers wheelbarrow and water tanks at exorbitant prices.
It was alleged at the time that Former Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, a favoured godson of Dr. Bukola Saraki, the then Senate President accessed some funds as campaigns for the 2019 general elections thickened in addition to dunds he allegedly accessed after taking over from his boss.
The funds were said to be applied for as loans for water projects and others.
The Kwara Gentleman’s Club during the week appealled to the current state administration not to allow the N6 billion in particular, to go down the drains noting that Governor AbdulRazaq’s administration had shown enough commitment to ensuring that all households in the state capital and the hinterland have access to clean water.