A Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Garus Gololo, has bemoaned the failed road and Mambilla power projects despite gulping a humongous amount of ₦1.2 trillion in the last five years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Gololo’s reaction in a statement on Friday in Abuja, followed a recent revelation that the amount was invested through Power Ministry during Babatunde Fashola’s time in road, and building peojects of the Mambila Hydro Electricity Dam, which both projects have failed woefully in Taraba State.
The APC Chieftain called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the Minister of Works and hand him over to the anti-graft agency for prosecution, given that he failed to justify the fund disbursed to his ministry as the Minister of Works and Power.
President Buhari was further called to direct the auditing of funds disbursed to ministries under the Minister from 2016 to 2020, viz: ₦260.08bn in 2016, ₦107.38bn in 2017, ₦344bn in 2018, ₦280.44bn in 2019 and ₦169.88bn in 2020.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, in Abuja on Friday made the call while bemoaning the abandonment of the 3, 050 Mega Watts power project facility four years after funds were disbursed for its construction.
He stressed that the ₦301. 257 billion electricity generating edifice which would have helped the country achieve its Vision 30:30:30 (30% renewable energy and 30GW capacity by 2030) would have also provided about 4.7 billion kWh of low-emissions electricity annually for the economy.
He said that the failure of the project and other infrastructural undertakings which were under the direct supervision of Fashola is an indication that the Minister’s “capacity to deliver is grossly overrated by the President.
‘Look at the various federal roads under him. For instance, of the 16 federal roads in Kwara State, 13 are in deplorable conditions, with the federal government through the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and other relevant agencies collecting ₦271, 404,839.64; ₦58, 434,345.58 in March 2020, ₦104, 922,205.81 in December 2020, and ₦108, 048,288.25 in February 2020 of the total project award sum of ₦32 billion for the rehabilitation of the failed sections linking Bauchi-Gombe road; with nothing to show for it.’
Dr Gololo described the network of federal roads in the country “as death traps which Fashola supervised based on his incompetence.”
He called on the President to act fast and salvage the image of his administration which ‘has been bastardized by mismanagement caused by people like Fashola.’
This is as Gololo commended the President’s intervention in Agriculture and Education sector, ‘where he readily set a standard for performance when he eased out the Heads of these ministries.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK