For the whole of this week, the Nigerian blogosphere went abuzz over a discovery that N78 million was awarded in 2014, for the upgrade of the personal website of the former governor of Lagos state, Babatunde Fashola.
For the most part, the former Lagos governor came under heavy criticism for spending state funds on building a personal website and at such outrageously exorbitant cost.
The information was gathered from the budget report of the awarded contracts’ list on the website of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.
In 2014, the Lagos State Government under Fashola, was listed to have spent N78 million for the upgrade of the website – www.tundefashola.com.
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Reacting to the public outcry and widespread criticism that has trailed the discovery, Fashola has denied the fact that tundefashola.com is his personal website. He even called his critics out when he said, “when you wrestle with a pig, the pig gets happy, and you get dirty.”
Folks, we ask, who then are the pigs?
Could it be the Saharareporters that went to town the best breaking news, or the sponsors of the paid broadcast or the contractor himself?
Contractor reacts to allegation it was paid N78million to upgrade a website for former Lagos governor Babatunde Fashola
A robust response promised by former Lagos state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN to allegations and criticisms that he commissioned a personal website to be upgraded for him while in office, at the cost of N78million is being awaited but the contractor who executed the contract has released a statement.
A press statement put out by Fashola’s media team, states:
“It is imperative to state here that, the website in question is not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website but an official website which reports and documents his official activities as a way of socially accounting for his stewardship to the people of Lagos State.
READ THE FULL: Official press statement by former Governor Raji Fashola on website allegations
“This initiative of having an official website for the Governor was to build on the earlier commitment to open access which saw Governor Fashola being the first serving governor to publish his telephone number on the pages of newspapers.
“As pressure mounted on that number, the website and all of its social media handles became alternative platforms for people to directly engage with their elected governor.
“As former Lagos State Governor, I set out to streamline easy access to myself, while in office and to document my activities for the citizens.
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However, Info Access Plus Ltd., the company to which the contract to upgrade the website, www.tundefashola.com was awarded, in a statement released this evening said that, “the website in question is not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website but an official website which reports and documents his official activities as a way of socially accounting for his stewardship to the people of Lagos State.”
Providing further details of the contract, the contractor stated that the Lagos state government paid less than N10million for the website and that the cost covers services which are still being rendered such as managing over 8 million picture uploads, thousands of videos, mobile applications for phones and tablets, among others.
To buttress its claim, the contractor added that former Governor Fashola also “personally paid for the www.brforg.org website, even when he was the Lagos State Governor. He felt that www.brforg.org is the online presence of his Non-Governmental Organization, BRF Organization.
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