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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, August 09, 2004.
US dissociates self from Ogun
rail, airport projects
By
Chinedu Offor
Correspondent
Washington
D.C
Some level of misconception has
started trailing the Ogun State Government’s proposal for the
construction of a cargo airport and a light rail system.
Reports
had indicated that the state government may have assistance for the
projects from the United States of America but the United States
Department of Transportation (DOT) is refuting claims it planned to
construct the facilities in the state.
The
agency said reports in the Nigeria media of a visit to the state by a
delegation of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), which was a unit
of DOT, could be a scam.
Spokesperson
for the FTA, Ketrina
Jackson,
said claims by senior Ogun State government officials of a deal with the
department were “bogus.”
“We
did not authorise any visit or enter into any partnership with the Ogun
State Government for building any facility in the area”, she said.
Ogun
State government officials, however, dismissed the claims by the FTA as
equally bogus as it was based largely on misinformation.
They
claimed the delegation was not an American government delegation but a
group of transport experts from America who came for a conference in the
Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The projects expected to cost
billions of Naira were the high points of Governor Gbenga Daniel’s
election pledge.
According
to a national daily (not Daily Independent), the delegation was led by
Dr. Ufo Eric Atuanya and met with top state officials committing the DOT
to the deal.
One of the officials was said to
be the Chairman of the state Infrastructure Development Committee, Kayode
Anibaba.
He reportedly said the projects
would reduce congestion at the Lagos airport and help evacuate
agriculture products, generate revenue and employment.
The
delegation commended
Governor Daniel for “ his genuine desire to move the state forward”.
Investigations
at DOT were unable to establish the identity of Atuanya. “ We do not have
anyone by the name on our directory or in any unit of the department”, a
top official said.
Controversy
over the alleged visit was growing among Ogun State citizens in the U.S
with some accusing the governor of deliberately over hyping his
achievements.
One
of the governor’s
critics and former National Conscience Party Gubernatorial
aspirant, Ogbeni Lanre Banjo, said he has his doubts about the
delegation.
“As
a government official here, I know for sure the U.S Federal Transit
Administration by law does not render that kind of services here much
less of a foreign nation”, he said.
Banjo,
however, claimed he knew the identity of Atuanya.
“He
used to work in the office of Congressman Rangel of New York. He left
there for the Department of Commerce and left government after the death
of Secretary Ron Brown. How he could lead a 12 man team from the DOT for
which he does not work beats my imagination”, he said. But the Chief Press
Secretary to the governor, Mr. Dare Folarin, said the delegation was not
an official US team.
According to him, they were part of delegates to a conference on
transportation that held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja in July.
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