CONSTITUENCY PROJECT: YOU LIED –NGO TELLS REP

Constituency project: You lied -NGO tells Rep
…Disregard their claim -Rep
From AKEEB ALARAPE, Osogbo
Friday, March 05, 2010
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Gbenga Onigbogi, has come under fire for claiming credit for a borehole sank by a non-governmental organization (NGO), D-Hope Foundation in Ilesa.

Onigbogi, representing Ilesa and Atakunmosa Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, was alleged to have told a national daily (not Daily Sun) during an interview that he sank a borehole at Ilesa Fire Station at the cost of N12 million.

But in a release made available to media houses in Osogbo on Wednesday and signed by its Director of Publicity, Mr. Sam Progress, D-Hope Foundation expressed shock that a federal lawmaker could make such false claim.

'This is basically to put the record straight that the said borehole at Ilesa Fire Station was constructed by D-Hope Foundation last year and not by Hon. Onigbogi as claimed in his interview with The Nation newspaper of March 2, 2010.

'We want to state that the borehole at Ilesa Fire Service Station is one of the several developmental projects embarked upon by our organization known for not making noise about our contributions to the development of the state,' Progress stated.

D-Hope Foundation is said to be a brain-child of Alhaji Lateef Bakare, another governorship hopeful in the state.

But when contacted on phone, Onigbogi asked that the foundation be ignored, saying no borehole 'is functioning at the Ilesa Fire Station', hence his decision to site a borehole at the fire station since December last year.

He described the borehole as part of his 2009 constituency projects under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but stated that work was yet to commence on the site due to the failure of the contractor handling the project.

'Just disregard the D-Hope Foundation's claim. It is my constituency project for 2009. One will be sited at the fire station and another one at Iwara Township. They just did the survey. I decided to site a borehole at the fire station because I don't think what is there is functioning.

'It is a 2009 project and if the contractor has not got to the site, it is not my fault. I was not the one who picked the contractor,' Onigbogi told Daily Sun on phone.

He directed that further enquiries on the project could be made at Osogbo MDGs office, stressing that a whopping N12 million was earmarked for the borehole.