Osun State Government And APC Trade Accusations Over COREN And NSE Infrastructure Approval

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of turning the recent visit of a combined technical team of Council for the Regulations of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, and the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, to an open celebration.

The Osun APC also alleged that the visit which was supposed to be an inspection and audit mission was turned into an open celebration where the visitors were spraying money at the point of entry.

The party also stated that the action by Governor Adeleke has cast an unmitigated aspersion on the credibility and independent professional seriousness of the body of engineers.

The party in a statement by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, noted that the circumstances surrounding the visit were offensive to rational reasoning.

The party revealed that the combined engineering visiting team only visited one project site instead of validating the architectural, structural and construction design and processes of the various ongoing infrastructure projects in the state.

“It is absurd and stranger than fiction that a supposed inspection team of a purported professional association would conduct itself in this kind of unbecoming, lousy and compromising manner.

“The question arises that at what point did the combined team of the NSE and COREN engineers thought it desirable and auspicious to give an award of excellence on the projects they were supposed to audit and appraise in Osun State?

“It won’t be out of tune for a discerning mind to question the propriety of giving an award to the person you have come to grade his projects.

“Do we need to question why there have been incessant incidents of collapsed roads, houses and bridges across the nation in recent time?

“We make bold to say that the road and flyover projects were awarded to fertilizer distributors and cyber cafe operators by Governor Adeleke.

“The circumstances surrounding the NGE/COREN team visit to Osun State appeared like an endorsement of a glaring failure and mediocrity of the shoddy projects being done by Governor Adeleke.

“It would not be an overstatement to recommend the proper investigation of the mission of the characters who constituted the NSE/COREN team to Osun State by the members of the body who have not been blindfolded by whatever might have been the bait for the controversial visit with a view to separating the pebbles from the edible grains of rice”, the state APC chairman stated.

Reacting, the state government thought the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Aliko on Monday said the Osun APC was in severe pain and in utter confusion.

While celebrating the validation of the Osun infrastructure projects by the combined team of COREN and NSE, Alimi condemned the APC, describing their opposition to the validation as shameless and morally empty.

He said, “The Osun State Government condemns in the strongest possible terms the demonstration of shamelessness and moral emptiness by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as it celebrates again the validation of Osun infrastructure projects by the Engineering associations.

“The APC has reached the lowest ebb. The opposition which built the openly substandard Olaiya bridge accused Mr Governor of doing the same on the multi-billion naira infrastructure projects. The NSE decided to verify the situation.

“We urge the APC to leave NSE out of its failed fortunes. The NSE is a professional body that won’t embrace APC culture of falsehood and fake news.”

The Engineering validation team was in Osun last week to validate the infrastructure projects of the Adeleke administration