Adeleke To Extend Contract Duration For Ilesa Water Project

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has said he may extend the duration of the Ilesa water financing agreement with the Islamic Development Bank which is due for closure by end of December.

Responding to a statement by the Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Chief Yinka Fasuyi, the spokesperson to the governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, said Adeleke had since written the Islamic Development Bank through the Federal Ministry of Finance to seek extension of the financing agreement.

Fasuyi had raised concerns over the stage of completion of the project and called on the state government to expedite action on it to make portable water available to the people of Ilesa and environment.

Rasheed said a team led by the commissioner for water resources, the chairman of the state water corporation and other top managers of the sector were following up on the letter to ensure early response from the headquarters of the ISDB in Jeddah.

“Mr Governor from his first month in office has intervened in the inherited contractual crisis between the Osun State government and the contractor handling the water treatment contract. The governor personally visited the then minister of water resources to resolve the knotty issues around the project”, Rasheed said.

Meanwhile, the Osun chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement signed by its chairman, Sunday Bisi, condemned the statement of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) that political pettiness was responsible for the slow pace of work on the project.