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The Lagos Public Procurement Agency has made a public declaration of how much it spent to upgrade the former governor, Raji Fashola’s website.  According to the body, the website upgrade cost the Lagos State Government up to N78.3 million.  The estimate was said to have fallen between 2014 and 2015. It would be recalled that former Governor Raji Fashola (SAN) was accused penultimate week of building and upgrading a personal website at the expense of the Lagos State Government. Fashola on the other hand had denied the allegation, claiming that the website does not belong to him, but is a property of the Lagos State Government. The state had however insisted that the website belongs to the former governor.     

The report hit the headlines after it was published on the real official website of the Lagos State Government. According to the said report, a firm named Info Access Plus Limited was paid the whooping sum of N78.3 m to get the website allegedly belonging to Fashola upgraded. The url of the said website is www.tundefashola.com. The report has it that the said website was last upgraded shortly before the governor handed over the reigns of leadership in the state to his successor, that is, before 29^th of May, 2015.   

According to information reaching us, the website has on display all the achievements of the former governor through his tenure as the governor of Lagos state from inception till his last day in office.  Our correspondence also revealed that a link on the said website links directly to the website of the former Lagos state governor’s wife, that is, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola. This new revelation is coming in the wake of the declaration by the present governor of the state to investigate the activities of the past government in the state.    

Efforts were made to speak with Mr. Hakeem Bello, Fashola’s spokesperson, but the efforts prove abortive. His number was dialed several times, but he never picked his calls.  Text messages were equally sent to his mobile number, but he never replied any of them. The governor too was contacted directly, but not a word was received from his end. The company that upgraded the website was also contacted to tell their side of the story. They confirmed that they were awarded the contract truly, but they were only paid N10m for the job. They equally berated the Lagos State Government for accusing their company of receiving N78.3 m. 

The IT company insisted that the website in question does not belong to the former Lagos State governor; they said it was only put up to make public Fashola’s achievements during his tenures as governor of Lagos State. They insisted that the website was created to account for Fashola’s stewardship to the people of Lagos State in his two-term governorship tenure.  The web development firm made it known that they have been in charge of the said website since 2008. They also stated that their works on the website included page template redesign. They stated also that several hundreds of pages were redesigned on the said website.

By Anthony Olawale Ojo