Dr Mufutau Raheem, Executive Chairman, Rahvet International Limited, has denied the viral news going round that the 10,000 Metric Tonnes Agricultural Silos project being financed by the Oyo State Government had been abandoned.
Raheem spoke in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan on Thursday in response to allegations that the projects being handled by the contractor had been stalled due to poor financing.
The statement read that the construction of the Integrated 10,000 Metric Tonnes Agricultural Silo and the Atiba FM being undertaken for the state government by the company are still ongoing.
It indicated that the silos, envisioned to generate over 100,000 jobs, is billed for completion in December 2020, despise the challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 scourge.
It read in parts, “We got over this problem (COVID-19) by looking inward and we were able to come up with a well experienced team of thorough-bred silo engineers in Nigeria that performed creditably even to the admiration of our foreign technical partners that were monitoring and supervising our work.
“The allegations, wherever they may be coming from, are baseless and unfounded. They are simply figments of imagination of the peddlers which do not conform to reality on the ground. I have not seen anything that is farther from the truth.
“The silo project is neither abandoned nor neglected. It is fully on course. My company is executing its construction. We have never abandoned the site for a seconds since the re-flagging off of the project; the payment obligations by the state government are being met as and when due.
“In actual fact, it should be stated clearly without ambiguity that Governor Seyi Makinde rescued the project from being a white elephant or abandoned.
“Before the inauguration of Governor Seyi Makinde as governor, my company instituted a suit in the Oyo State High Court against the state government and some of its officials for infractions to the contractual agreement.
“However, as fate would have it, the two parties agreed to a revised additional contract sum to complete the project.”
