Ben Agande
6 June 2008
Lagos — The Governor of Edo State Professor Oserheimen Osunbor yesterday said his administration has spent about N9.7 billion on the construction and rehabilitation of over 28 different road projects and in the control of erosion and flooding in the state in the last one year.
Speaking with state house correspondents after a meeting of PDP leaders with the vice president, the governor also vowed that the internally generated revenue of his state would be increased from N200 million to N8 billion annually in order to help drive the developmental programmes of the government.. The governor stated 'the total cost of road contract awarded so far is about 9.7billion. But there were other contracts that were awarded and so we are looking at a total of about N12bn.The payments have not reached that limit because most of the projects are still on-going while some have been completed. Some also will be awarded as funds become available as there are many area of the state that is calling for attention."
The governor continued: "you would have noticed from various publications last week as we celebrated our first year in office that we had quite a lot to tell the people of Edo sate and indeed the world about what we have been able to do during the past year, in virtually all sector and facets of life in the state. "The area that stood out most and which has drawn the biggest commendation from people is the area of road construction and rehabilitation. Perhaps because that was the most neglected aspect of the state during the preceding 8 years it was totally neglected. The roads became very deplorable." "They were crying for attention there was a lot of pains and sufferings. The issue of flooding and erosion sacked residents from many part of the city and we sat very quickly to address the issue to tackle the problem of flooding, erosion and after that given attention to road construction and rehabilitation. People are showing appreciation." "There are other sectors like the judiciary. This morning we presented jeeps to the judges in the state and according to the chief judge, the gesture is unprecedented in the anal of the judiciary in Edo state," he disclosed.
"The internally generated revenue of the state before my govt was N230m a month now I believe the last figure I saw early this year is about 450m. This may not be too exact. So you can see that we have made more than 100% increases in revenue generation under one year and we want to sustain that", he said.
He said his government was introducing automation in internally generated revenue to block loopholes in leakages and by ' the time we conclude that exercise we should be in the position of attaining the target of N8bn. Or at least something close to that."
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