I Was Neither Invited Nor Detained By EFCC…Safety, Quality Of Tanke Flyover 100% Guaranteed – Kwara Former Works Commissioner

Engineer Suleiman Rotimi Iliasu, who served as  Kwara state Commissioner for Works and Transport between  2019 and  2023, has described as untrue and unfounded media reports claiming that he was quizzed and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and made to face questioning over how things were handled by the ministry of Works and Transport on his watch.

Taking questions from reporters including Team@orientactualmags.com during his visit to the secretariat of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists  in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, on Thursday, Hon Rotimi Iliasu emphasized the need  for media practitioners to ensure highest professional and ethical standards and serve the public with thoroughness and sincerity.

‘What serves as a medium to tell the truth and you use such a platform to tell lies, things will go the wrong way because it will not allow people to get convinced when someone is even telling the truth via  the same platform.

  There is a need for a roundtable and if possible through training let everybody in the media space know who is who, so that only reliable information will get churned out.

 Some people called me and said they wanted to hear my own side of the story and I said ‘ah what is my own side of the story?  There is no need for that now. Somebody wrote rubbish why are you now asking that you want to hear my own side of the story. I have never received an invitation letter from the EFCC, the anti -graft agency has never sent a letter to me that they are inviting me for questioning. The only letters I had received  from EFCC  were instances that they needed  our support while I was Commissioner for Works .

  Some people had done certain things at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital,   and they wanted us to make our engineers available to help them do some measurements in respect of the projects in question and verify certain things there.

 Those were  the kind of letters I have seen but EFCC sending a letter to me as a person in respect of questioning, no , there was nothing like that.

It is not possible because firstly, I thank God for where I had served ,Kwara state, the governor  is someone that will not just award contracts he will ensure a due diligence check .

 Actually, in the whole country and I stand to be corrected there is no state that their rates with respect to construction works is as low as ours  It is the lowest . 

I have never received invitation from EFCC, I cannot taint the reputation of my family and that of  the Kwara youths because somebody will say ‘young people were given opportunity see what they have done with it’.

 I have never been invited by the EFCC , ICPC or any agency’ he said.

While recalling his childhood experience, Hon Rotimi  Iliasu also noted that the whole drama is politics-infused.

‘It is also political . I remember that as a young boy I used to watch NTA news and when I see some people there doing very well I would be very happy and pray inwardly  that when I become an adult I will  also be as good as they are, I never imagined that I can later do things that will make such people feel threatened I never knew I could become a political figure that they will say ‘this guy is become a threat’ and what threat am I becoming? I want to do things for my people I have benefited from the slot they gave to Moro local government for four years .

So, whatever I make is not for me  but all of us that is why whatever I have, I still go back home  So, when I now see such people that I had prayed to become like them attack me,  I say ‘amdulilah’ my reason is this, it means that my prayers when I was in primary school has been answered probably maybe I’m bigger and they want me to come down and I won’t come down because   Allah will not make me come down all these things and everything is political’ he submitted.

The former Works commissioner has also allayed public fears about the safety and quality of the Tanke Flyover project asserting that it is one of the best in  the country while adding that ‘quality’ was prioritized at every stage of the construction work.

He also explained the misconceptions about the aesthetics of the flyover bridge.

‘I will be honest with you, the quality of work being done at the Tanke flyover is superb. At each of the stages , tests were done  and we made use of the lab at the  University of Ilorin and also the one at the Landmark University, Omu-Aran which has the best lab in the state.

 I agree with you on one thing that the surface of the concrete wall in some parts were very rough. Why was the surface rough?  It was rough because when you are doing concrete  work, there is an amount of concrete that you will use the same wood for , I mean the formwork but the contractor was reusing, and this is something we had to drag  but by the time this got to my attention it  was late but what matters most is  the safety and quality of the flyover bridge .

Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN  came, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE came,   strength testing of concrete bridges were done  and others   but it  passed very well actually there are pictures showing reinforcement and  how  things were done , the quality of the flyover is perfect the only thing you see there is the surface and that surface is not its strength that surface  has to do with aesthetics and paint  and other things that came on it do not have any issue with regard to safety and quality of the flyover.

 That  construction work  is one of the best jobs that has ever been done in Kwara state,   you can see the asphalt work as I was coming  here I saw that  they were doing the second layer of the asphalt and again kudos to the governor,  I used to be a  commissioner but I’m no longer there and work is going on how did they start, they started with laterite , they brought in stone base they were not using graders o, we know roads that they did and used graders rather they brought the pavers to ensure that the height of stone base was achieved after the stone base, they came with asphalt and people thought it was the final asphalt and  some were saying all sort of things,  they are now doing the final asphalt  and work is ongoing there . We don’t have the project located in a hidden place it is there for people to see things for themselves.

We have renowned consultants that supervised it and from day one quality has never been trivialized’ he asserted.

 Hon Rotimi Iliasu also noted that if not for lack of funds, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq would have loved to saturate the state with infrastructure projects hence his efforts to continue to interface with federal government agencies in Abuja to attract funds and projects to the state.

He also submitted that contracts could get terminated if a contractor does not meet the expectations of the government ‘because the people are expecting results’-Team@orientactualmags.com
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