The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Mr Taiwo Adisa, has described allegations that the Oyo State Government was granting approvals for the construction of buildings and mining activities on federal roads in the state as nebulous.
He said, “They should say the specific area they are talking about and if that is done, we will know what happened. If they are talking of Oyo-Ogbomoso road, it is a long stretch and the road passes inside the bush in Oyo except in Ogbomoso where it passes through the town is some areas. Even at that, the houses were there before the road project was awarded.
“We need to know the specific areas they are talking about and that will help us to ask questions from the appropriate ministry.
The Federal Government had made the allegation, stating that it had created a huge problem and slowed down the construction work being embarked upon by the Federal Government on the Ibadan-Ilorin Road, Section III (Oyo-Ogbomosho) project.
The Director, Highways Construction and Rehabilitation, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Funso Adebiyi, said the encroachment on the right-of-way of the federal project and illegal mining activities along the new alignments had impeded the construction and dualisation of the road.
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He was quoted in a statement issued in Abuja by the spokesperson of the FMWH, Boade Akinola, as saying, “We discovered that the state government was giving the approval to build and mine along the same alignment of the road.
“And this has created a huge problem for the progress of work because the earth materials we would have used have been mined away. It is not good and must be stopped.”
Adebiyi, who disclosed this during the inspection of the 56km greenfield road project, stated that the project was initially awarded in 2010 to Messrs RCC Nigeria Limited.
He said the road was later reviewed after augmentation in November 2020 with a completion date of November 2023.
He said the quality of work being done on the road was satisfactory but stressed that the illegal mining and building activities on the project site were undermining the progress of work on the road.
