• Urges contractor to revise engineering designs, ensure transparency
• State, ADC trade words over SUBEB’s private donor project guidelines in schools

Ogun State Government has directed the contractor handling Senator Gbenga Daniel’s constituency project on Paddy Arikawe Oye Igbimo Road in Sagamu, to revise the engineering designs substantially and ensure transparency in all submissions to the state.

This development comes after the contractor, Minim and Tonye Nigeria Limited, submitted a bill of quantities to the state government, days after being accused of violating regulations by commencing work on the state road without approval and subsequently being directed to follow due process.

According to the state government, the design submitted by the contractor is not acceptable for now, as it falls below specifications.

The government conveyed the decision through a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works, Dr I.O. Yusuf, and addressed to the managing director of the company.

In the letter, the ministry said it observed that whereas the total length of the road in question is three kilometres, the contractor failed to specify the portion of the road the 260 metres approved for construction will cover.

The state government, while welcoming the contractor’s eventual decision to seek approval for the project, said concrete binding should be of Grade 20 while concrete grade for the reinforced concrete base, walks, and deck must be Grade 25 minimum, among others.

It also asked the contractor to use a 220 mm thick reinforced concrete pavement of not less than Grade 35 concrete, preferably Grade 40 concrete.

It further asked the contractor to provide the full layout with elevation and grades, and concrete pavement details with reinforcement details at the joints, among others.

In another development, Ogun State Government and the state chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), yesterday, disagreed over a memo released by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on September 15, 2025, authorising private donors to seek the board’s approval before embarking on projects in public primary schools across the state.

However, while the ADC accused the state government of attempting to kill basic education and frustrate public-spirited individuals from developing the education sector, the state government also fired back, accusing the party of lacking understanding of the law governing SUBEB over primary schools.

Chairman of the party, Femi Soluade, had, in a statement on Sunday, criticised the Dapo Abiodun-led administration for trying to destroy the education sector following SUBEB’s memo that private individuals and humanitarian donors should seek approval before establishing projects in public primary schools.

Soluade, who frowned on the state directive stopping philanthropists from supporting educational development in the state, said that the memo was also an attempt by the government to deepen the rots that continue to plague the sector and denied the child’s right protected under the Universal Basic Education Act, 2004.

The ADC’s chairman, who described the memo as disgraceful, expressed regret over how some pupils in the state were seen carrying desks and chairs on their heads to their respective schools to receive education, blaming the government for toying with the children’s academic potentials and future over the issue of the memo.

But in a swift reaction, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, accused ADC of ranting over the memo to gain public attention, insisting that the party lacked knowledge and was alien to the laws guiding SUBEB in running the affairs of public primary school.

Akinmade, who described Soluade’s statement as “an astoundingly illogical and illiterate outburst,” called the sanity of the author into question, stressing that even though the current administration welcomes philanthropic projects in its public primary schools, it was against individual or organisation embarking on projects in the schools without consulting relevant authorities.