The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Oyo State chapter, has said that it had serious doubt that a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Segun Oni, ever attended any engineer-ing school, tasking the Nigerian Society of Engi-neers (NSE) to critically conduct an enquiry into his claim of being one of them.

The ACN spoke against the backdrop of the former governor’s criticism of a road dualisation contract recently awarded by the Oyo State government.

Oni had queried the government’s decision to award a 4 kilometre  road contract for N5.8 billion, while calling on the people of Yorubaland to task ACN governments in the region on what he called the “spate of loans” in the ACN-controlled states.

However, in a swift reaction, the PDP in the South-West accused the ACN governments are plunging the region into huge and embarrassing debts, saying; “It is only in ACN-controlled states that 1kilometre of road is being executed for outrageous amount ranging from N400 million to over N1billion.

Reacting to the comment by the Oyo State chapter of the ACN an Oni’s Media Aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka said; “It is ridiculous that a road that already has an existing one-lane will be called dualisation, while in actual fact, what is being added is another lane.”

Speaking in a release signed by the Publicity Secretary of the ACN in Oyo State, Honourable Dauda Kolawole, the ACN said it was amazed by what it called the former governor’s “engineering illiteracy” as well as his “infectious mischief” which, it said, were the PDP’s stock-in-trade over the years.

According to the party, the PDP was apparently bothered by the rate at which the South-West, which it left in a state of ruins, was developing and as such, the need to draw back the hand of its “developmental clock.”

“That is the only plau-sible explanation we can find for this pull-him-down tactic of Segun Oni. Unfortunately, however, this tactic was executed in the most illiterate and uninformed manner that beggars the question. In addressing the question of loan, Oni got it so bad that one cannot but wonder if he understood elementary economic; on road con-struction, he went so much off the mark that we cannot but ask NSE to look into his claim of being an engineer,” the ACN said.

The party said it was surprised that a man, who claims to be an engineer, would rush to the press to criticise a road project that has received the applause of the citizenry, simply because he needed some advertorial comment to conclude his circuit of criticising ACN governments.

But Oni’s media aid, Mr Olayinka, said further that “even assuming but not conceding that the road in question is actually 9.25km, isn’t it scandalous that a 9.25km of road was awarded to Bola Tinubu’s Hitech Construction Company at N5.8 billion?  Even in water-logged Niger-Delta area, is one kilometre of road being constructed for over N600 million as being done in ACN-controlled states?

“When Segun Oni was governor of Ekiti State, he awarded dualisation of 19km Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki, a near virgin road for a little above N6 billion. The contract was inclusive of street lights from Ado to Ifaki. It is also on record that apart from Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki dualisation, the average cost per kilometre of road awarded by the Oni-led government was N37 million. These roads are still being used up till now and they are in very good condition,” he maintained.

Nigerian politician can be funny, seem Ad hominem is now the best way to refute your opponent allegations thereby, negating the substance of the claims...