The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State has alleged that most projects executed under the leadership of Governor Babagana Umara Zulum are substandard.
The party cited the celebrated first flyover in the state that cost N4.3 billion which was recently commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari during his December 2021 visit to Borno.
The party in a statement issued yesterday in Maiduguri by the publicity secretary, Mr Amos Adziba, said the new flyover was already developing cracks a few days after its commissioning.
He said: “The PDP received with dismay calls and messages from concerned citizens of Borno State expressing concern for public safety and waste of public funds on substandard projects by the Borno State government over the years.
“The calls followed reports of impending collapse of the just concluded Customs fly-over bridge that gulped over N4 billion. It is the responsibility of all citizens, including all our party leaders, members and all citizens of Borno State to be vigilant and demand accountability from Governor Zulum’s administration because vigilance and demand for good governance are the prices we as citizens must pay to safeguard democracy and public safety.
“Our state has witnessed lots of losses of unquantifiable level over the last one decade and at this stage of recovery, while we still have numerous security challenges to face, we as a state cannot afford to waste such huge public finance on projects that are not well thought of, well designed and well executed within the global best practices standards.
“We therefore condemn in total, such poor infrastructure development that aside wasting huge public funds, portend a serious danger to lives of our citizens plying the route,” the statement said.
Reacting, the APC chairman, Hon . Ali Bukar Dalori, advised the factional group of PDP of which Mr Amos Adziba is the publicity secretary, to face their court cases filed by the PDP chairman in the state, Hon Mahdi Baderi.
He added that there was no need to join issues with a factional opposition party claiming to be PDP leaders, but for the purpose of clarity, the ruling APC under his chairmanship deemed it necessary to keep the general public abreast with the campaign of calumny against Governor Zulum by Amos Adziba.
“Instead of the factional PDP led by Zanna Gadama as chairman and Amos Adziba as publicity secretary to face their court cases, it is unfortunate that this group has chosen to create lies against the committed and transparent execution of people-oriented projects under the leadership of Governor Babagana Zulum.
“Since inception of this present administration, Zulum has executed over 600 projects comprising roads and drainage networks, hospitals, schools which have been attested to be of good standard by notable engineers, and that is why even the president of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Babagana Mohammed while on a visit to Borno applauded Zulum’s projects after he inspected them recently,” Dalori said.
