Edo flags off N5.7b erosion intervention project for Auchi

GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has flagged off a N5.7 billion Auchi erosion project to tackle the menace threatening to consume the community, describing it as a historic intervention that will change the fortune of the kingdom.

 According to a statement issued by the gov’s Chief Press Secretary, Peter Okhiria, Oshiomhole, who spoke at the flag-off  of the World Bank-assisted project at the weekend, said “we have borrowed N5.7 billion to protect this great kingdom of Auchi, to restore hope and to remove the fear and the pain that people suffer when it rains because that is the primary purpose of government. The loan that the bank gave to us is at an interest rate of less than 1% and it was spread so thinly that we pay painlessly. So, it takes a sensible government, competent and transparent for people to access this World Bank facility.

“I want to congratulate you for witnessing this historic intervention which will change the fortune of this great kingdom and all those who reside in this kingdom. When men or women who are enthroned into office by God conduct themselves under the guidance of God and ensure that justice and fairness rule, then the people will rejoice because they will witness development.

“I am really excited at this rare privilege that we are here to formally flag off the restoration and the construction of the Auchi erosion project. Different governments in the past have attempted to address this problem. I am told that one contractor that was given the job in the past by some federal interests even have some of his second hand tractors trapped in the valley of this kingdom because whereas the people of Auchi wanted government to solve the problem, some persons in government were more interested in the name of the kingdom and in the name of this project to pocket tax payers’ money.

“So rather than give the contract on the basis of well-thought-out designs that can be scientifically checked and verified as suitable and proper, they choose one of themselves who knows next to nothing about civil engineering or erosion control so that the money can be taken.

“So when you hear I criticise PDP, it is because this has been their habit. In the name of the unemployed, they will advertise, collect money and in the end people will die. In the name of Auchi erosion, they appropriated money, they took the money and Auchi people were worse off.

“But like I have always said, my task was never to lament the failure of the past but to put hope and to make the point that we still can make tomorrow better if we learn the right lessons from the failures of the past. When I assured His Royal Highness that this will be done, I did so because I know not that we have all the money to do all that we desire to do but because we have the will to do everything that we are sure we need to get done.

“Today, we are here in spite of all the conspiracies from some quarters to deny us access to the ecological funds from which we could have raised even this sum to get this job done. Even when they gave out N2 billion each to some states, they didn’t to Edo State but I am not lamenting that now,” the governor was quoted as saying at the event.