Ibadan — Oyo State government at the weekend expressed worry at the criticism of the Pan-Yoruba social cultural group, Afenifere that the state government awarded a refuse clearing contract to a non-existent American firm at the cost of $80, 000 .

The government through the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Alhaji Mukaila Aborode, described the group's criticism as malicious, degrading, wicked and unfounded, pointing out that impression created by the comments of the group could mislead the members of the public.

Aborode, who spoke with newsmen confirmed that the government signed a contract aimed at converting wastes into ethanol and generate electricity for the state with an American metalurgical processing firm, Zia, at $80, 000.

The commissioner noted that Afenifere goofed when in its comments, it alleged that the government awarded the said contract to an American firm called Seer which the government official maintained was erroneous and misleading.

He said that it was unfortunate and surprising that Afenifere could involve itself in falsehood as it did and charged the members of the public to disregard its argument that enquiries conducted so far by it have shown that the American Zia Methodological Processing Company may not be in existence.

The commissioner who declared that the harsh criticism of groups like Afenifere could not distract the government from its avowed stance to improve on the environmental condition of the state stated that the government had been careful in its public administration focus in order not to generate undue and unhealthy reactions from its pathological critics.He stated further:

"We have adopted scientific method to rid the city of filth and to leave behind a kind of legacy that can stand the test of time. Since we came on board, we have tried our best to provide a kind of permanent scientific solution to the issue of waste management here as it is affecting Oyo State and most especially the city of Ibadan.

"As government, we have procured 20 Roll-on-Roll-on(RoRo) trucks to complement the efforts of the Ibadan Solid Waste Management Authority. We have recruited 1,580 cleaners maintaining our roads. If you go round the city you will see our women sweeping and the city of Ibadan is wearing a new look because when I assume duties as the commissioner in charge of the environment, the then ministry of environment was in comatose as a result of many years of dysfunctionality.

"Today,we now have a brand new ministry with new eyes and new lenses based on our performance. Although we are not where we are supposed to be, but by my assessment, we had exceeded 65 percent level of cleanliness though our target for the people of Oyo State is 90 percent."We recognized the global environmental changes. We therefore need to align the state with global environmental challenges so we still have to do more. Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala recently approved the sum of N490m to procure another 20 unit of skip-pitters in our quest to keep the state beautiful and clean.

"As part of the Private Sector Initiative of this government, since we know that refuse management is very expensive, we cannot do it alone, hence the incursion of the private sector. Already we have embarked upon beautification of round-about in the city this is at no cost to the state government. What I did as the commissioner was to visit the banks, service providers, Nigerian Breweries, Coca-Cola to, as part of Social Responsibility, to do something for Oyo State."Hence all these beautification exercise going on. This did not cost the government a dime. It shows that this administration is very pragmatic, strong and beyond ordinary. It is massively driven by the sense of purpose and renewal for the benefit of our generation and the generation yet unborn for posterity sake so above all the environmental revolution embarked upon by this administration we are fully determined to pursue to its logical conclusion."