by Mr. Kayode Olawepo, Kwara ACN Chairman

Penultimate week, our party (ACN, Kwara) issued a statement dismissing what has become the unsavoury borrowing habit of the PDP-led government in Kwara State without commensurate execution of projects for which such funds were sought. 

Today, in line with our commitment to ensure that it is no longer business as usual in Kwara, we are again raising the alarm over what is clearly another attempt to commit public fund and property to yet another questionable project. Last Thursday, the PDP government signed an MOU with one 'Vasolar Consortium of Spain' for the cultivation, processing and packaging of rice in commercial scale in the State.

Under the agreement, according to media reports, "the Consortium will provide a total capital of N70 billion over a period of four years while the State Government is expected to provide about Seven Million Euros and 20,000 hectares of land to kick-start the project."

We deem the whole arrangement a monumental fraud. For one, our research since the Thursday event reveals that no company exists under the name Vasolar Consortium whether in Spain or anywhere in the world! Assuming without conceding that such a company exists in Spain, how come it is not listed or registered with the Spanish's equivalent of our own Corporate Affairs Commission? Does that not raise the question of credibility which is sin qua non in any business deal?

Again, since the whole project is tagged a N70b venture and the 'Vasolar Consortium' is to provide this fund over a period of four years, why must Kwara Government commit another seven million Euros of taxpayers' fund to the same venture it is certain to convert to a private venture just like it did with the fraud called Shonga Farm? If, as it is clear from the above, that Vasolar Consortium is a nonexistent company, why give out 20,000 hectares of fertile land belonging to our people?

This fraud must not stand. We urge the people of Kwara State to resist by all means legal this fraudulent arrangement under the guise of commercial farming. Enough is enough!