June 2020 marks exactly one year that lawmakers, across Nigeria, both at the Federal and State levels, were sworn-in for their four year tenures. Expectedly, most of them are currently giving ‘stewardship’ accounts to their constituencies, with claims of ‘achievements.”
The representative of Alimosho Federal Constituency, Olufemi Adebanjo, popularly called ‘Eyes Open,’ has also done so, reeling out lots of achievements ranging from community development, bills and motions initiated in the parliament, empowerment schemes to other benefits.
All these were captured in a message titled ‘365 Days in Review,’ released by the lawmaker on his Facebook page.
“It is with great pleasure and joy to account for what the administration has done so far within the one year in the service to the good people of Alimosho at the National Assembly.
“According to him, the last 365 DAYS in office had been eventful and challenging. It has, however him an opportunity to make some meaningful contributions into people’s lives and communities within the Constituency.”
However, what drew our curiosity was the claim that he built “free ICT CENTERS in Alimosho Local Government, which, according to him, “provided free internet access to the members of the public, mostly for the benefits of the Secondary and University students, to make academic researches.”
One of the issues that emanated from this claim was that the locations of these ‘ICT Centres’ were not stated in the review.
Community Standard could only verify the one at the Alimosho Local Government Secretariat in Akowonjo.
The centre was ‘commissioned’ in May 2018, so how it still managed to feature in the lawmaker’s 365 days (2019-2020) achievements beats the imagination of members of the Alimosho Federal Constituency! Community Standard had reported the commissioning in 2018. Except if the commissioning of the other centres were not made public, and that would be unusual of a typical Nigerian politician!
http://communitystandard.com.ng/free-wi-fi-centre-opens-in-alimosho-lg/
We can also report authoritatively that the centre had since been turned into ID card registration centre’, as against the purpose it was meant to serve.
It would also be interesting to note that the facility, made with a small size ‘container,’ situated near the council’s ‘Oja Irorun,’ was shut for over seven months before it became operational as Nigeria Identity Management Commission, NIMC, ID Card registration office in 2019.
http://communitystandard.com.ng/eyes-opens-free-wi-fi-centre-remains-shut-seven-months-after-commissioning/
Community Standard called the Media Aide to the lawmaker to explain the reason for the inclusion of a 2018 project in the 365 Days Review.
“The reason for that is that, there is a rehabilitation going on at the centre if you visit there, that’s why,” he said.
In the days ahead, Community Standard will do more of fact-checking on some of the claims of the federal lawmaker.
This exercise will, however, not be restricted to Adebanjo, it will also be conducted on the Local government and LCDA chairmen, whose tenures may soon come to an end.
