Date: 2014-08-14

In "I Bring Glad Tidings to the People of Kwara. A Rejoinder by Muyideen 'Femi Akorede" dated 11/08/2014. The Senior Special Assistant stated inter alia
"Can you retreat from governance and still significantly improve school infrastructure, expand water supply, create a new generation of commercial farmers, connect 400 communities to the electricity grid". But two days later, Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed stated that "The Kwara state government has in the last three years spent N6 billion on the electrification of over 60 communities in the state" The Governor, Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed, disclosed this at the Consumers Forum organised by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) in Ilorin.

On the other hand, I stated in my latest piece that the Ahmed administration had earlier claimed in a document distributed to Kwarans resident in Lagos that thirty (30) communities were connected to the electricity grid. I also informed Kwarans that we have raised a fact finding committee through the Kwara Restoration Project (KRP) to verify the veracity of the 30 communities so connected. Whenever the report is ready, we will avail Kwarans the opportunity to know how their money was spent. We promise to be fair to the Ahmed administration in our submission and to accurately report without fear or favour.

Again, the thirty communities that were connected by the Ahmed administration as claimed in their Lagos document are: Owode Kekere, Apado, Woru Oja, Medinatu Faida, Jabi, Kure, Famole, Bukanu, Woro, Yibacheko & Shaban, Tunga Sukababa, Yesele Adio, Agbaku, Agar, Ojutaiye, Gaa Kawu, Agbaku Awuyan, Ogbagba, Koro & Yagbagi, Seku Owode, Alasoro, Osin Ayekale, Gaa Tekun, Kabba Kajola, Amberi, Falokun, Ikotun, Qawiyy community and a few others. Again I ask; where are the remaining 370 communities as claimed by Muyideen Akorede?

In the case of Governor Ahmed, where are the remaining 30 communities that you claimed at the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Consumer Forum in Ilorin?

From the foregoing, I have shown three separate instances where the Ahmed administration has given conflicting figures as to the number of communities that were connected to the electricity grid. In one instance, the administration gave the names of the communities in a published document authorized by them and we have reproduced them here. We at the Kwara Restoration Project (KRP) are presently verifying this particular claim. The report of which will be made available to the public very soon.

Now the big question is; between the document that was distributed in Lagos, the claims made by Muyideen Akorede, the SSA to Governor Ahmed on media and publicity in his article, and the statements credited to Governor Ahmed at the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Consumer Forum in Ilorin, which one is the correct version?

Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi writes from Ilorin