Date: 2019-01-23

The governorship candidate of the Kwara state All Progressives Congress (APC) AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq campaign organisation and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed have disagreed over the yet-to-come to fruition N70 billion Vasolar rice project.

The Abdulraaq campaign organisation described the state government as one of the most unaccountable in the country.

But the state government said that the Vasolar rice project was done transparently and with sincerity of purpose.

Media aide to the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq campaign organization, Rafiu Ajakaye said: "Kwara State government runs the most deceitful and unaccountable government in Nigeria as most of its claims are based on outright falsehood while its projects were often conceived to either give the impression that it was doing something or divert public funds to advance private business interests.

"A few examples include the Shonga farm project, aviation school, diagnostic centre and recently the so-called International Vocation Centre, all of which the government now says belong to private concerns after public funds had been used to establish them.

"In 2012, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed entered into an agreement with one Vasolar Consortium which, to quote the governor, 'will provide a total capital of N70billion over a period of four years while the State government is expected to provide seven million euros and 20,000 hectares of land of which 5,000 hectares will be cultivated yearly.

"It has been seven long years since that MOU was signed and nothing has been heard of this clearly fraudulent rice project. Where is the public fund sunk into the Vasolar fraud?

"To further appreciate our O To Ge (enough is enough) campaign, Kwarans may recall the collaboration between Kebbi state government and Lagos on rice production started on March 23, 2016 and the first yield of that collaboration was in the market precisely December 21, 2016.

"The Igbemo rice in Ekiti started much after the Kwara contraption and the rice is now in market.

"Just like people cannot point at any benefit from the Shonga farm, into which billions of public funds and resources were sunk, it is safe to call the so-called MOU with Vasolar Consortium a big scam and an economic crime against the people of Kwara.

But Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ahmed on media and Communications Dr Muyideen Akorede said: "There is nothing secret about the Vasolar project. Nothing about the project qualifies it as a scam.

"For the benefit of the Abdulrahman Abdulrazak campaign organisation, a memorandum of understanding, MOU, is a non-legally binding but formal agreement between two parties. That means it is not binding on either party. It's public knowledge that the state government entered into a highly publicized MOU with Vasolar to establish an agribusiness venture in Kwara state.

Read Also: 2019: PDP, APC in battle of supremacy in Delta "The company was to contribute funds into the project as equity while the Kwara state government was to contribute land and other infrastructure.

"However, the company was unable to raise the equity contribution and therefore pulled out of the planned project. How does that represent a scam? "How can a highly publicised agreement between the government and another party which could not be consummated because the latter had a rethink be described as a scam?

"We urge politicians to avoid commentary that has the potential to scare away potential investors from Kwara State."