Oyo State Governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, was on Thursday, joined by his Benue State counterpart, Governor Samuel Ortom, to commission the 65 kilometres Moniya-Ojutaye-Ijaiye-Iseyin Road.
Ortom, who was the soecial guest of honour at the event, commended Makinde for delivering such a massive road project, among many others, despite economic challenges and other odds that have befallen the nation.
He congratulated Makinde for standing firm with his people, saying Governor’s of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are living up to expectations of the people.
The Benue governor equally lauded the people of the state for supporting Makinde, noting that evidence around have shown that while the All Progressives Congress (APC) has failed the leadership test across different spheres of life, PDP governors the are doing very well.
Ortom also charged the APC-led Federal Government to ensure security of lives and property and enhance justice in the land.
Governor Makinde, while speaking at the official commissioning ceremony held at the Akinyele Local Government Secretariat, Moniya, Ibadan, maintained that the Moniya-Ijaiye-Iseyin road will enhance the socio-economic development of the state and play a major role in engineering a modern Oyo State.
He added that the project aligns with his administration’s focus to lift the people of the state from poverty to prosperity, noting that the government has, in the last two years, embarked on reducing the infrastructure deficit in the state and building infrastructure that target the economy.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicated that the road was revoked and re-awarded by the Makinde government on November 5, 2019, after the contractor engaged by the previous government demonstrated lack of capacity.
It added that the fact that the road was completed in 18 months despite the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, which affected activities around the world, showed the administration’s commitment to keeping its promises.
While addressing those in attendance at the official commissioning of the road project, including the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji and other notable traditional rulers, especially from the Oke Ogun zone of the state, Governor Makinde said that the delivery of the road project is another promise kept.
The governor added that the project is one of many projects that will play a major role in engineering “a modern Oyo State where the prosperity of the people through economic integration serves as the fulcrum of government’s decisions.”
He said: “First, let me appreciate my brother, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State for travelling down to be with us on this happy occasion. I want to use this opportunity to convey the deepest sympathies of myself, my family and the good people of Oyo State to you over the death of your Senior Special Assistant on Security, Christopher Dega. May God grant you and his friends and family the strength to bear the loss.
“I am sure I speak for myself, the people of Iseyin in particular and the good people of Oyo State when I say, we are delighted that you could be here today at the commissioning of the 65-kilometres Moniya-Ijaiye-Iseyin Road.
“This road remained in a deplorable state for several years. I remember that immediately after I became governor, I began to receive SOS messages regarding this road. I remember this particular request on social media from someone who said some parents have had to withdraw their children from school because of their inability to navigate this road to get to school.
“The state of this road also kept people away from going from Moniya to Iseyin. On a good day, they would spend three hours out here. You can then imagine what it would be like on a bad day when perhaps a truck has broken down at one of the terrible spots.
“Although a contract for the rehabilitation of this road was awarded by the previous administration, our initial inspection visits in 2019 revealed that the contractors had not even done 5 per cent of the work here before abandoning it. We therefore had to revoke and re-award the contract.
“I always say that whatever decisions we make at any point in this administration will be based on science, data and logic. So, we factored in that we wanted this road to be top grade and last at least 10 years before any rehabilitations.
“For this reason, we decided to increase the stubbing course from about 150mm to about 200mm, and we also changed the asphaltic wearing course from 40mm to 50mm. Looking at the initial design, we also realised that there was inadequate provision for drainage. So, we had to remedy that too.
“More importantly, the original contract was for what they called, “limited rehabilitation.” This is just a fancy way of saying they would patch the road. They would look at those areas that they felt were bad and do some rehabilitation works.
“For us, this was flawed logic. We knew this would only amount to kicking the ball forward. In a year or so, we would be back to doing major rehabilitations.
“So, with all the available data, we decided that the more logical thing to do would be to increase the contract sum by about 2.9 billion Naira and deliver the quality of road that our people deserved.
