Former Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashola has reacted to the controversy on the N78m website controversy. He took his stand today at the ongoing ministerial screening at the Senate.
In his words “I don’t fix contract prices, it is an institutional process. The only training I have is that of a lawyer, but in order to execute works on a project we need the input of architects, quantity surveyors, structural engineers and we have consulting ministries; for civil works it is the Ministry of Works, for science it is the Ministry of Science and Technology among others.
Now periodically, they do market surveys with the Ministry of Economic Planning , the Statisticians are there to fix prices from biro to iron rod to cement it is approved and it becomes the benchmark price of government procurement, nobody can award any other contract over that benchmark.”
The unfortunate things about money, as Fahola put it, is that it often raises suspicions even among brothers. “Nobody has alleged that I have corruptly enriched myself, I could not be the master of computers and technology, I need something to do my work or award contracts,” he said.
On the question of reparation for destitute, Fashola told the senate that there were correspondences between Lagos State Government and government of where the destitute were repatriated to. He said most of the destitute were rehabilitated by Lagos government “before they were taken back to their state of origin.”
According to him, the destitute signified their intention to go back home before Lagos State Government took the decision to do so. However he apologized to whosoever the state government might have offended with the action.
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