Ondo Govt, PDP exchange words over plan to build N2bn Governor’s Lodge

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State and the state government on Thursday locked in a row over the plan of the present administration in the state to build a new governor’s lodge in the state.

While the PDP lambasted Governor Rotimi Akeredolu over his plans to build a N2billion lodge in the state when the state government is struggling to pay workers salary in the state, the state government said the opposition party has shown indiscretion display of ignorance on issues of governance.

Speaking during a press conference in Akure, Ondo State capital, the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr Fatai Adams, described the proposed plan to build a new governor’s lodge with the taxpayers’ money as the height of the governor callousness and wastefulness, considering the economic situation and hardship in the land.

Adams said: “While the present administration of Akeredolu has a backlog of unpaid salaries of workers, it is proposing to build a N2billion naira new Government House in Akure. This is not only ridiculous but the surest evidence that the Governor has completely lost direction. Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Akeredeolu’s predecessor built a very befitting Government House, in 2013, a few years before Akeredolu assumed the reins of government. To spend 2 billion naira of taxpayers’ money on another Government House at this time is the height of callousness and wastefulness.”

But the Commissioner of Information and Orientation in the state, Mr Donald Ojogo, while speaking on behalf of the state government said the position of the opposition party had thrived at an inclement path of a fruitless incitement as it incredulously, suggested that Ondo State does not need a befitting Governor’s Lodge.

Ojogo said: “The misplaced allusion to the Governor’s Lodge as well as the weak nexus between same and the issue of salaries betrays unpardonable amnesia on the part of a political party. It becomes immeasurably uncanny if such party had left the stage with the most uncharitable legacy of ‘unpaid seven months salaries.”

Perhaps, PDP deserves to know that the envisioned governor’s lodge is among the plethora of iconic projects targeted with the yet-to-be-fully accessed BOND.

“Suggesting, therefore, that Government should ‘shelve’ the project for salaries clearly shows a gross lack of knowledge of how Bonds work. They are, as Special Purpose means of funding developmental initiatives, inconvertible to cash, hence undrawable by anyone.

“Rather than abandon the welfare of workers for months without remorse under any guise, the Ondo State Government led by Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN shall, at all times, evolve ingenious means to address the issue of salaries in the face of excruciating global economic challenges,” he said.

The PDP however, queried the ruling APC government in the state to explain “if the Governor’s Lodge built by Dr Olusegun Mimiko in 2013 becomes so uninhabitable such that a new one is inevitable in this perilous time?

Considering the terrible economic situation and hunger in the land, is it proper or reasonable for a government to embark on a N2billion project that will only serve very few individuals when millions of people are languishing in despicable penury and dying without basic healthcare service delivery?

“But again, if a society is not fully informed of the atrocious and pernicious nature of the party in government, the people may always be cajoled or beguiled through a well-oiled and orchestrated propaganda machinery, into believing that the government is working in the interest of the people.”

The Ondo PDP also condemned the resignation of over 105 medical doctors from the Ondo State public service over the inability of the government to pay the medical personnel their due salaries and hazard allowances as and when due.

Adams who described the development as worrisome said it showed the failure of the present administration in the state, saying Governor Akeredolu unapologetically told the Doctors in a widely televised program that the services of the doctors were not indispensable.

“This is worrisome as we all know that we are dealing with the health and lives of our people here. I’m sure you’ll all recall that Ondo State was the destination for medical tourism in the South West because of the first-class service delivery found here under the PDP administration,” he added.

He said records available to the party showed that “no Medical House officer has been employed by the Ondo State government since 2019, a situation that is responsible for the poor services rendered in the hospitals.

“The available few hands are already overwhelmed and overstretched by the high number of patients coming for medical attention. This is very pathetic. Our people are dying unattended to. This portends grave danger especially in a period when all manners of epidemic rear their ugly heads,” Adams said.

(Nigerian Tribune)