Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Monday directed state government officials to investigate the allegation of structural defects on the building project at the Oba Akinbiyi High School, Oremeji, Ibadan.
The governor specifically ordered that reason behind the termination of contract for the building of classrooms at the school and the subsequent approval for its execution at the cost of N400 million through direct labour by the former administration should be unearthed.
Governor Makinde visited the school in company with the Commissioner for Education, Olasunkanmi Olaleye, officials of the Ministry, the Auditor-General of the state and officials of the Ministry of Works, among others.
Both the staff and students of the school had become panicky on the possible consequence of learning in the building which was completed barely a year and some months ago.
The governor said, “In the file that came to me, this place was commissioned the week that I took over, 29th of May, 2019. You can see it out there. Even the Oba Akinbiyi they wrote (the signboard) there, is falling off. If you go inside, the tiles are broken. The structural integrity of the entire building is doubtful, and we have teachers and students in there. We don’t want the building to collapse on anybody. So, we came to check.
“The borehole is not working. According to the principal, they have 57 toilets in here, but the students still go to the bush to do stuff. From the report that came to me, the contract was terminated from the original contractor and over N400 million was released by the government to complete it through direct labour.
“So, I believe they will have to make some explanations as to why, first, the contract was terminated; second, why N400 million was spent and the tiles, the doors, everything are basically broken.
“If, in one year, this whole thing is fallen into pieces and people build their own houses and expect to live there for at least 25 years, this is obviously not acceptable to us. And we will get to the root of it.”
