Constituency Project: Kashamu, Kaka Lay Claims To Facilitator

A former member of the National Assembly, Senator Adegbenga Kaka, on Wednesday accused the representative of Ogun East Senatorial District and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Buruji Kashamu, of hijacking his constituency projects.

Kaka, who served in the Senate between 2011 and June 2015, specifically flayed his successor for claiming the glory for the sponsorship and construction of blocks of classrooms at Japara High School, Ijebu-Igbo and Ansar-ud-Deen High School, Isiwo, Ijebu-Ode.

He said it was not “honourable” for ‎a serving lawmaker to be claiming constituency projects that were not earmarked nor budgeted for during his tenure.

But in a swift reaction, Kashamu ‎denied the allegation and accused his predecessor of scheming to divert the constituency projects before his intervention.

He maintained that Kaka cannot justifiably lay claim to any constituency project, having lost his re-election bid to represent the senatorial district.

It will be recalled that Kashamu, at a reception held in Ijebu-Igbo penultimate Saturday by Ogun State PDP, announced that he had been able to lobby and attract the blocks of classrooms as constituency projects within six months of representation in Abuja.

Speaking on the matter, Kaka, who was a member of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, explained that despite being out of office, he was still monitoring the implementation of the constituency projects already awarded during his tenure.

According to him, about 60 concrete projects that he facilitated were executed within the senatorial district during his stay at the National Assembly.

He added that solar-powered street lights across the nine local government areas in the senatorial district and a primary health centre in Oke Sope, Ijebu-Igbo‎ were still being executed.

Kaka noted that though government is a continuum, politicians are not supposed to be claiming the glory of projects they had nothing to do with.

He said: “In this case, I had four years and I programmed all my projects in such a way that no local government is left untouched and I did it in such a way that where the Federal Government constituency projects cannot satisfy‎ the needs of my constituency, I took it upon myself to do many others to the extent that those that I did privately are probably more than what the government did.

“So, for 2015, which was the last lap, the last year, I had six blocks of three classrooms in six local government areas.

“All these sites were personally visited by me.

I selected them based on needs and the need to spread the projects and I packaged all of them for 2015 constituency projects.

“So, all‎ these locations were the ones I’ve been monitoring.

“But surprisingly, because of paucity of funds and the Treasury Single Account, a lot of money were mopped up; so the people could not do it.

“I was surprised when I got there to see that Senator Buruji Kashamu has put a signboard claiming that he sponsored the projects rather than waiting for the 2016 budget‎, mark out his own projects and get things done.

“So, virtually, he has hijacked the two already given and being executed.”

Reacting, Kashamu, in a statement by his media aide, Austin Oniyokor, said Kaka’s allegation was funny.

Oniyokor said Kashamu had no apologies for his action since he acted “in the best interest of the good people of ‎Ogun East Senatorial District who rejected Kaka and his ilk and massively voted for Senator Buruji Kashamu to represent in the National Assembly”.

He said in the statement: “‎If he claimed to have influenced the inclusion of some projects in the budget, he was able to do that as a senator.

“Having lost his re-election bid and seat to Senator Buruji Kashamu, he has automatically lost all the rights and privileges that go with the position. He can not justifiably lay claim to any constituency projects. They are meant for the good people of Ogun East Senatorial District and having been elected to represent them, the responsibility to ensure the projects are executed falls on Senator Kashamu, particularly as a member of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary).

“Besides, Senator Kashamu was not the one who awarded the contract for the projects. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) awarded the projects to contractors who meet up their requirements.

“Perhaps what is annoying Senator Kaka was that we foiled an attempt by him and some elements to divert the projects even when he is no longer in office. If that is the case, then we have no apologies for our action.”