Nigerians outraged over report that former Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola spent N78.3 million on personal website

Several Nigerians are outraged over a recent report that former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola spent N78.3million on his personal website.

The mind-boggling expenditure published on the state public procurement office’s website, was first exposed by foremost budget analytic firm, BudgiT.

Other questionable expenditures incurred by the administration include N1.2 billion vaguely spent on the “construction of pedestrian bridges along Oti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway”. The spending did not specify the number of bridges.

In the same year, the government also awarded contract for the provision of wall signage in three magistrate courts at the cost of N17 million.

The Fashola administration further spent N3.46 billion for the construction of a beach resort in Ilase and N61 million for a Range Rover SUV and 2 Toyota Hilux trucks as the official vehicle of the Chief Judge of the State.

The document shows that the administration also spent N85 million for the repair and replacement of street signs.

Other curious expenses contained in the document include N330 million spent for the development of the residence of Mr. Fashola’s deputy, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, and N94 million spent on “printer consumables”.

The contract for the refurbishing of the former governor’s personal website, www.tundefashola.com, was awarded to “Info Access Plus Limited”, by the office of the chief of Staff of the governor.

Curiously, for a company that specialises on building and upgrading websites, a Google search for Info Access Plus, revealed that the company has no website of its own.

According to information technology experts, www.tundefashola.com, created by the firm for the former governor, is a WordPress website and an upgrade could not have cost more than N300, 000.
Outrage

The news of the expenditure has elicited outrage from Nigerians, with many using their social media accounts to lambast the governor, who was widely seen as one few upright politicians who could be given a cabinet position by President Mohammadu Buhari.

As the time of filing this report, the spending was trending on Twitter with close to 10,000 Tweets.

Read some of the Tweets below...