By Aderogba George
The Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG) and Integrity Advocacy for Development Initiative (IADI) says Sem. Solomon Adeola has done well for his Ogun West Senatorial District.
The group at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday said it had verified most of the initiatives executed by the senator
Chief Dominic Ogakwu, President, CSGGG, said that the CSOs intervention was based on their evidence-based approach to governance.
According to Ogakwu the CSOs and other partners organisations independently monitored several Federal Government projects and empowerment programmes facilitated by Adeola in Ogun West and beyond.
He said that his team visited project locations, inspected interventions, interacted with residents and beneficiaries, and documented their findings through monitoring reports, photographs and field observations.
Ogakwu also said that at some empowerment programmes, the CSOs representatives also addressed beneficiaries directly.
“We are here in response to recent allegations and public commentary concerning projects facilitated by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
“Ordinarily, a civil society should not intervene in every controversy involving a public official or become a participant in every political dispute.
‘However, when claims are materially at variance with facts independently observed and documented by us, silence would amount to a failure of responsibility.
“Our intervention is therefore based not on information supplied by Senator Adeola or his associates, but on our own monitoring experience.
“We therefore speak substantially from what we personally saw, documented and verified on the ground,” he said.
Ogakwu said that the projects the CSOs monitored were not merely figures appearing on budget documents, adding that it saw physical and identifiable interventions,.
According to him, they include roads, schools, electricity, healthcare and other community infrastructure.
He said they also observed empowerment programmes involving traders, artisans, farmers, youths, students and other beneficiaries.
He said that from the projects inspected, he found substantial evidence of execution and, in several instances, interventions that were delivered to a commendable standard.
“During some of our monitoring activities, our teams also observed officers of anti corruption agencies, including the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), monitoring some programmes.
“We do not speak for the ICPC or claim knowledge of its findings. We state only what our teams observed: we were not the only observers of some of these programmes.
“This does not mean that physical execution settles every accountability question. Procurement processes, contract values, quality, value for money and financial transactions remain legitimate areas for scrutiny.
“But such questions must be examined through records and verifiable evidence rather than assumption or inference,” Ogakwu said.
Mr Patrick Onomodeke, Executive Director, Centre for Peace and Transparency Initiative said Adeola had done his best for his constituency.
Mr Christopher Ofomhi, Executive Director, Integrity Advocacy for Development Initiative (IADI), urged CSOs nationwide not to allow themselves to be used, but always back their position on national issues with facts
‘We saw all the project executed by Senator Adeola also known as Yayi. He gave his best to all the project he executed in Ogun West,” Ofomhi said.
Also speaking, Adeniran Taiwo, Director of Programmes, Transparency Advocacy for Development Initiative (TADI) commended the senator, saying that he was impressed with all the project he saw during inspection.
“All these project can be verified instead of making claims that are not true, I call on other senators to emulate senator Adeola,” Taiwo said. (NAN)
Edited by Uche Anunne
Comments