Dump Aregbesola’s airport project, group urges Adeleke

Forum 1 year ago

Dump Aregbesola’s airport project, group urges Adeleke

A civil society group in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds, has advised Governor Ademola Adeleke, against embracing some policies of the previous administration that flopped, so as not to further endanger the fragile financial condition of the state.

Specifically, the group expressed concern over the plan by the Adeleke administration to invest in the Ido-Osun Airport project and demanded a probe of past investments in the project by previous administrations.

Speaking with journalists during its monthly media chat in Osogbo on Tuesday, the group’s Executive Director, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, recalled the statement credited to Adeleke during a visit to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, in his office in Abuja, where he assured the former governor that he would ensure the completion of the Ido-Osun Airport.

Oyedokun-Alli said, “Governor Adeleke was quoted as assuring the former governor that he would ensure the completion of the Ido-Osun Airport. We must state that the unprecedented waste of our state’s resources that went into the idea of constructing an airport in Ido-Osun is one that several successive governments must be worried about and possibly probe.

“A simple Google search would reveal how officials of the Aregbesola government admitted that state funds, running into billions, were spent on constructing the airport. Today, we find nothing worthwhile on the ground. We advise the governor (Adeleke) to exercise serious restraint with his statements in support of any past policy in Osun. We are particularly bothered that this state is not at any point of financial strength yet to begin pursuing such costly ideas that will put us in more financial trouble.

“The governor must tread the path of financial caution as Osun is just returning from some serious financial mess and is not fully on its feet yet. All government spending must be towards sustaining the little growth we have made in recent years and facilitating homegrown developmental solutions, not white elephant projects.”

Commenting further regarding the security situation in the state, Oyedokun-Alli lamented the rise in the rate of crime in the state and urged Adeleke to immediately arrest the situation before the state would be plunged into unrest.

Reacting, spokesperson for the Interior Minister, Mr Sola Fasure, said the CSO should desist from dragging Aregbesola to issues that does not concern him.

“If you recall properly, Aregbesola didn’t start MKO Abiola Cargo Airport, Ido-Osun project. Oyinlola’s administration started it. We have had Aregbesola, Oyetola and now Adeleke.

“Aregbesola is no longer the governor of the state. Must his name be dragged into what does not concern him? If these people want to be popular, they should devise other means and not by constant mention of ex governor Aregbesola,” Fasure said.