Posted by By Sunday Aborisade, Ibadan on
A study carried out by the Ibadan-based Centre for African Settlement Studies and Development, in some local government areas in Oyo State, has revealed how lawmakers in the last administration allegedly misappropriated the N320m Constituency Development Funds they collected.
A study carried out by the Ibadan-based Centre for African Settlement Studies and Development, in some local government areas in Oyo State, has revealed how lawmakers in the last administration allegedly misappropriated the N320m Constituency Development Funds they collected.
Many of the legislators were, however, returned during the 2007 general elections and are still serving their various constituencies.
The study tagged, 'Tracking of Constituency Projects Budgets in Oyo State: A strategy for Promoting Good Governance', was carried out by CASSAD in collaboration with Fredrich Ebert Stiftung Nigeria.
The survey showed that the lawmakers, who collected N10m each, embarked on the construction of projects such as boreholes, street lights, blocks of classrooms, town halls and post offices without carrying the beneficiary communities along.
The Acting Executive Director of CASSAD, Mr. Nicholas Dosunmu, presented the project findings at a one-day dissemination workshop for politicians and career civil servants in Ibadan on Thursday.
Dosunmu said the projects of four lawmakers in three local government areas - Akinyele, Ido and Orire, were randomly analysed by the agency within seven months.
He said findings among the various beneficiaries of the projects revealed that they were not involved in the planning and execution of the projects, but were only invited for their inauguration.
He cited the case of a building meant either to be a either town hall or a post office constructed and inaugurated by one lawmaker in 2006 as his constituency project.
He said it was re-inaugurated and passed off as another project some years later.
He also alleged that the quality of building materials used in one building already inaugurated was substandard.
He said the floor was peeling while the ceilings had broken barely five months after it was constructed.
He said, 'The team also found out that apart from the epileptic power supply, the transformer capacity was too small for the community thereby making the street light not useful.'
He said that the community protested the provision of street light when they had demanded for the construction of industrial borehole which was their priority.
He also said the team discovered that a borehole constructed by another lawmaker packed up three months later.
He said, 'Members of the community complained that the borehole was not useful for them at all as it did not serve the community since commissioning. The water from the borehole when it worked, was said to be of poor quality.'