PDP, LP TRADE WORDS OVER NON COMPLETION OF EVENT CENTRE IN ONDO

By NBF News

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) traded words on the failure of the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration to complete the international conference centre tagged: 'The Dome' as scheduled.

The Mimiko-led government had turned the sod of 'the dome' in January this year with a promise to commission it in the next six months.

But the PDP queried the rationale behind the construction of an event centre tagged the 'The Dome' by the state government at a cost of N15 billion when the then government of former Governor Olusegun Agagu proposed a N75 million banquet hall for the state.

According to a statement issued by the party's Director of Publicity, Mr. Ayo Fadaka, the party also alleged that the state government was not following due process in the award of some contracts in the state.

The statement read: 'Of a truth, this state needs a banquet hall for government activities and this explains why the Agagu administration decided to embark on the construction of one adjacent to the governor's office for a modest fee of N 75 million, a project the Mimiko administration cancelled and replaced it with this Dome project that is costing the state princely sum of N 1.5 billion.

'The idea of a dome in the first instance is not only absurd but misplaced, as the need for such a project is totally irrelevant to the requirements of the state particularly at a time when the state owned Cultural Centre is begging for attention and still unable to attain maximal use in this environment'.

But, the state government in its reaction, urged the PDP to stop pointless criticisms and allow it to move the state to the promise land. The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Kolawole Olabisi advised the PDP to allow the ruling party face the task of removing the state from the misery that the PDP administration had subjected the people to in its six years in office.

He said the opposition was just trying to be economical with the truth, stressing that the achievements of Governor Mimiko was there for everybody to appreciate. Olabisi added that the banquet project was cancelled and replaced with office complex because there was no parking space for the complex, stressing that 'as long as work was in progress at the site, the project would be completed in due course.'

His words: 'The PDP should either jump into the lake or stop this fly in the ointment criticisms and allow Mimiko's administration face the task of governance. They had their opportunities and wasted it. For over six years, it was planning and drinking of champagne.' The government said it was improper for a government that squandered the resources of the state when it was in the saddle to come and accuse another of extravagance.

'We all know how they wasted our resources on frivolities, they should stop raising unnecessary alarm to discredit the Mimiko led government', he added.

Olabisi added that the project when completed, would attract investors and turn around the fortunes of people of the state around for better. But, the PDP urged the people of the state to begin to ask questions on the parameter this administration used to award its contracts when obviously the entrenched due process, like the Tenders Board were being ignored consistently.