In 2023, Ademola Adeleke’s administration executed a capital-intensive borehole project across 332 wards in Osun State without a cabinet. In a short time, there were repeated claims of deficiencies. Some were reported faulty, some never constructed, but the government dismissed these claims. FIJ’s AKINJIDE ADEBOWALE visited Osun State to find these boreholes.
By March 2023, Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State Governor, had spent 100 days in office. He informed Osun residents of a “pro-masses 100 day” borehole project that would see his government construct one borehole each in 332 wards.
A month after Adeleke’s first announcement, the Osun government claimed that the project was 85 per cent near completion. After the subsequent four months, the government said generator sets had been distributed to help each ward power the boreholes.
Suspicions Began To Brew
The Osun Masterminds was one one of the most vocal voices that queried Adeleke.
The group claimed that the Osun State Government failed to honour its Freedom of Information Request on the specific locations of the boreholes.
“We demanded the cost-per-unit of the boreholes. We also demanded proof of approval, because you would recall that there was no cabinet at the time that project was executed,” the group claimed.
The Stance of the Public Procurement Act
It was for transparency sake that the Osun Public Procurement Law 2015 was enacted. To aid compliance with this act, the Osun Public Procurement Manual was drafted to simplify the ‘dos and don’ts’ of public procurement in the state.
In specific terms, the purpose of the procurement manual was to ensure that the best value for a project and efficiency of the contracted entity, among others, were given premium during procurement.
While the execution of this borehole project has been wrapped in secrecy, the only explanation given by the Adeleke-led Government was that the boreholes were purchased through direct labour and each unit cost N1.5 million.
‘Direct labour’ refers simply to when a government agency executes a project using its workforce and resources rather than contracting it to an external firm.
The Government further explained that the amenities used were purchased on a shoestring. This means that only essential materials for the projects were purchased. However, they failed to state these ‘essential materials’ in clear terms.
Of important note, however, was that Gboyega Oyetola, Adeleke’s predecessor, had got the 2023 budget passed into law two days before his handover to Adeleke.
The lack of public record of the location of the boreholes was a major hindrance to finding them.
A Facebook group which posts Iwo updates gave some suggestions on the locations, but the information given by the group later proved to be misleading.
It listed only six locations for the borehole project in Iwo: Kajola Market, Akinola Street off Feesu Road, Odo-Ori Market, Hospital Junction, Ita Ago Adunmade and Agberire. But it took visiting only Akinola Street at Feesu to figure that the map I initially followed was broken.
Feesu, Iwo Local Government
Akinola Street of Feesu was a small dusty old area signified by clusters of old structures in it. When I arrived there, I had first sighted a borehole, which I guessed was the one I was looking for.
A man in his sixties, but very agile both in tone and movement, was my first point of contact. It took a few seconds into our conversation before I knew he was a PDP member, although, he spent most of the time telling me how displeased he was with Adeleke for abandoning them.
“The borehole you saw was built by some Saudi people who came to do a project here,” he explained.
“They built it 10 years ago before it was renovated by Honourable Ara (a State House of Representatives member) in 2023. Adeleke did not build any boreholes for us.”
From Feesu to Ita-Ago, I found only boreholes built either by constituency representatives or other project sponsors, until I got to Araromi.
Gidigbo Ward II, Araromi: Pumping Machine Got Faulty After 6 Months
Araromi was almost a sharp contrast from Feesu. Here, the tarred road kept the atmosphere abuzz with the sound of bikes.
I noticed that for all the locations that I visited, the boreholes had a community member in charge of them.
In Araromi, Yetunde Akorede, whose shop was closest to the borehole, was put in charge of the tap. I spoke with her in the presence of Toheeb Musiliu, another resident of the community who I met in her shop.
Akorede’s medium-sized shop was a stall for crates of bottled alcohol and sachet gins displayed by her iron door.
She confirmed that the borehole was built in early 2023 as part of Adeleke’s 100 days project, but within the first few months after it was constructed, it developed a few faults.
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“It (referring to the borehole) has been repaired twice since it was installed. It spoilt in less than six months after it was first completed. The pumping machine was too small to power the borehole, so it was changed,” Akorede recalled.
“The Olomo Wewe Local Council took the small machine and replaced it for us but that was after it had become useless for three months.”
“The people who did the borehole project are not from here. It is like bringing someone from Ibadan or Lagos. Immediately they finished their job, they never looked back to monitor its workability,” Musiliu added.
“Shina, the LCDA chairman, was the one who brought us the new pumping machine, but less than three months after that again, the wire in the new machine got faulty too.”
After the second fault, Akorede told FIJ, the residents had to gather up to N15,000 from community members before the borehole was again brought back to life.
I easily located another one at Araromi Market, not more than a five-minute drive from where I spoke with Akorede. Another duo, a baba l’oja (male head of Araromi Market) and Abdulsalam, an electronics repairer locally know as a radionic.
Baba l’oja came off as one who was politically inclined, considering his position in the market, but he was unwilling to speak because he didn’t want to be quoted in this report. He immediately got Abdulsalam to answer my questions.
“I was in the committee that went to pick the generator from the local government office,” Abdulsalam said.
When I asked if he knew the contractors who got the project, he said he didn’t.
“I only know who brought this Storex (pointing to the water tank) here, Alhaji Taofeek Amobi,” Abdulsalam.
“As you can see, the tank leaks, and since we have been fixing, it still is not stable.”
Abdulsalam said the borehole developed four different faults less than a year after it was built. Three of them were a result of construction errors.
“We first noticed after it was built that power was not getting to the pumping machine,” he said. “Electricians said the fuse was faulty. They replaced it but it developed another issue shortly after that. Everything has been fixed now.”
A part of the water tank was still leaking water as I spoke to him.
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When I asked how funds were raised for the fixes, Abdulsalam told me the baba l’oja had been responsible, and that he wanted to fix the leaky tank with his personal funds but he (Abdulsalam) suggested that the burden be shared with all its users.
“We fixed the tank then, but you can see that it is still leaking,” Abdulsalam told FIJ.
Gidigbo Ward III: Faulty Borehole Became A Tool For Political Points
Gidigbo Ward III was not as busy as Ward I. The borehole had a rusty and stiff tap. The pavement was dry. It had all the signs of equipment that had not been in use for as long as I could tell.
A furniture maker whose products were displayed close to the borehole was reluctant when I asked why the borehole had not been in use or when it had last been. He would later introduce me to his sister who in turn introduced me to Olayemi Ganiyu, one of the persons in charge of the borehole.
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Olayemi told me that the borehole was functioning, although, during local government meetings, users from the other communities in Iwo did complain about the faults theirs had developed just after the boreholes were constructed.
“Ours was working well until the transformer we were using blew off at a point,” she explained.
“The heavy blow damaged it so much that even when we had power, it would not pump water. The transformer damaged something in the machine.”
When diagnostics were run on the machine, it was discovered that the coil in the pumping machine had been damaged, and it would cost N50,000 to fix.
“We connected the borehole’s power source to the house it was built close to, but we pay for its charges separately. We pay the houseowner who then pays for its power usage on the community’s behalf,” Olayemi explained.
“It was during the councillorship election period, and it caused a little bit of an issue with the councillor at the time. He (pointing to Gafar Adesola’s campaign poster) wanted us to come and ask him for the electricity money every month, something that was only a token. It was just N1,000 per month.”
“I pay it sometimes, the owner of the house pays sometimes or anyone else available. We didn’t have to ask him for the money. He had not been voted in at the time, but he was the interim councillor. So he wanted us to always ask for the money every month to glorify his efforts. He died last year.”
As I moved further, the roads resumed to more rowdiness, and that was because the communities I was approaching were in close proximity to Odo Ori Market. I came to a stop just adjacent the palace of the Oluwo immediately I sighted some women fetching water from a borehole.
Palace of the Oluwo adjacent the Isale Oba Ward II Borehole
Beside the borehole was a Northerner selling fast food, and his Yoruba was good enough for communication. He told me that the functioning borehole was given to them by Adeleke after his first 100 days.
The facility was functional, but its condition was not a pointer to the fact that it had always worked. So I found out from Muftau Ajadi, who came to patronise the noodles seller.
“I was one of those who went to take the generator from the local government,” Ajadi said.
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Ajadi said the borehole engine had broken down completely three months after it was mounted. It took concerted efforts from community members before it went back to the functioning borehole that I met.
Isale Oba Ward II Borehole
“No one tampered with it. It just suddenly stopped functioning. In fact, we could not remove the faulty engine because mud had covered it due to the way they (the contractors) sunk it,” Ajadi said.
“I guess it was even the mud that spoilt it. We resorted to sinking the new one with the spoilt engine. If my memory serves me right, we spent between N54,000 and N58,000 to buy a new engine in 2023.”
The contributions were quickly gathered as it was the only source of water at Isale Oba, Ajadi said, bar another borehole at a nearby customary court.
“We had even first met the interim local government chairman to help us fix the engine, but they told us to keep waiting, someone was going to come and inspect it, but we did not see anybody,” he added.
Isale Oba Ward I was a sharp contrast from Ward II. The area was residential and barely noisy away from the main road. Life looked slower here and the the buildings were mostly old mud houses.
Before I located the Adeleke-approved borehole, the ones I saw were mostly abandoned. One of those boreholes had not been in use for over five years and another relatively new one was not functioning. There was a well in about every pair of houses that I passed by.
When I finally located what I came for. It was easy to recognise as it maintained a similar look to the one I had seen at the other locations. Beside it was an electronics shop that belonged to Sakiru Asifat.
Asifat told me that all they used to have in the area were wells. During dry seasons, those wells dried up.
Apart from a few broken taps, the tank was also leaky. Asifat said it had been so for about a month and all efforts to fix the leak had been unyielding.
“Anytime it develops a fault, we fix it ourselves. The tap leaks. We have fixed it before and it would stop, but after a while, it would start leaking again,” Asifat said.
He also showed me the generator set they were given to power the borehole.
Isale Oba was the last place I checked in Iwo LGA before I headed for Ola Oluwa Local Government Area.
Bode Ward VIII: Govt Claim To Have Spent N1.5m, But It Gulped Another N35,000 From Residents In Less Than A Year
Bode is a small town under Ola Oluwa LGA. Between Odo Ori, one of Iwo’s main markets, and Bode is about 11.5km stretch of road with farmlands on either side, a few schools and numerous houses.
Unlike Iwo, Bode was more serene and semi-urban. There were a number of boreholes around here and they were mostly new. The usage here was not heavy compared to Iwo, and I guess that was due to the relatively low population, as I observed. It took about an hour before I found the exact borehole I was looking for.
Behind the borehole was a house and beside it was a cluster of shops. One of the shop owners, a palm oil seller, and an aged woman who stayed in the house behind were the two who spoke with me.
The palm oil seller told me that one of the pipes started leaking at first, and it was not because someone or something had tampered with it.
“Everything we spent for a new pipe and workmanship was around N20,000. That one happened six months after they completed it,” the palm oil seller said.
“Later in 2024, we had contributed another N15,000 amongst ourselves to fix a part of the tank that was leaking. You can see the rubber the material they used to seal the leaky part,” she added, pointing to a patch on the tank.
Ola-Oluwa Ward X, Asa: ‘We No Longer Have To Fetch Water From River’, Says Asa Monarch
Finding the borehole at Ola-Oluwa Ward X was a herculean task. It took me face-to-face with Oba Adeolu Akinyode, the Adatan (king) of Asa. He told me that there were up to seven boreholes at Asa, but the one built to celebrate Adeleke’s 100 days in that ward was at Adebiopon, a small village on the road to Asa Ajagunlase.
“In this ward, we got one, and that one is for the Adebiopon community. It is a settlement under Asa Town,” he explained.
The Adatan told me specifically that they had benefited immensely from the government in terms of water resources. “We have up to seven boreholes that are still functioning, and people no longer have to fetch water from the river again,” Akinyode said.
But At Adebiopon, Adeleke’s Borehole Was Absent!
Asa was a serene community, but Adebiopon was even quieter.
For 20 minutes from where the village departs from the main road, I barely saw up to three people on the long dusty inroad that led there.
My first contact in the village was Alabi Mojeed (pseudonym), a man who was perhaps the oldest person in the entire village.
All the mud houses here, which were not up to ten in number, could be seen in one league. Beyond them were only bushes and a palm oil processing shed.
Before I saw Mojeed, I had got the sight of a borehole at the village entrance to my right and a tiled mosque to my left.
Mojeed told me they did not get the borehole as part of Adeleke’s project. The only thing they were promised during the governor’s campaign was electrification of the community.
“This is the only borehole that serves all of us. Before it, we fetched from the stream. It was Amere, under the APC government, who gave this borehole to us, not Adeleke. I am not formally schooled so I don’t know the exact date Amere brought it, but I know it was his,” Mojeed said.
Despite Amere’s borehole being present, the man said they had not abandoned their stream. Another man gulped the stream water from a bucket in my presence when Mojeed took me there.
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My next stop was at Aiyedire Local Government. From Asa, the LG secretariat was about 28.5km which took approximately 45 minutes to one hour by bike. It too another 10 minutes before I located the borehole in Ile Ogbo.
When I met different community residents, they all pointed me to Rasheed Olayinka’s house.
They said only he could tell me which of the boreholes around was built to mark Adeleke’s 100 days in office.
Olayinka was a popular figure in Ile Ogbo because he was a politician, a member of the PDP and the one put in charge of that borehole in the community.
The borehole was opposite Olayinka’s house, exactly in front of the Ile Ogbo PDP party house.
“The engine got burnt at a time, and we tried multiple times at the Local Government. They said there was nothing they could do. It was someone who helped by buying us a new engine,” he said.
“I cannot say specifically how many months it used before the engine stopped working, but it was not up to a year.
“Some people came then and told us that in such cases, what we should do is to contribute within the community because such things ‘cannot be tabled before the governor’. That was before we then got a helper who helped us with the money we used to buy a new engine.”
Olayinka refused to name the person who gave the money or how much they gave.
“There is no power in the party’s office, so we mostly powered it with the generator set they (the government) gave us then. There was a time we contributed N100 to buy fuel for the borehole, but when another was mounted at that mosque (pointing to a nearby mosque), people no longer contributed since they had an alternative,” he explained.
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Olayinka said he had to subsequently redirect electricity to the borehole from his house through a wire. He also refused to tell me how much he spent to do this.
After this, I headed to find more boreholes in Osogbo.
Osogbo Ward IX, Popo: A PDP Member Turns Borehole Into His Personal Business
Popo is about three minutes from the palace of the Ataoja. I randomly found the borehole in front of a chemist’s shop. Whether it was actively functional, I could not tell, especially since the taps were very dry.
Temitope Tijani, the chemist, told me that the borehole works well and it is powered by a generator.
“I don’t pay to fetch because I only have a shop here. Those who have houses here are the ones who pay since they use more water. People contribute either N100 or N200 to fuel the generator. You can ask that woman over there,” Tijani said, pointing at a food seller on the other side of the road.
When I spoke with Motun Odebode (pseudonym), the food seller, she was very reluctant to speak at first. She later told me that a man popularly known as Tantala was the one in charge of the borehole. Contrary to Tijani’s claim, Odebode said Tantala sold the water to the community residents who fetched from the borehole.
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“You see, this area is very delicate. We heard that they give him money for fuel monthly, but he sells the water to us,” Odebode said.
Odebode told me Tantala did not hold any position in Popo. He is a PDP member.
“Other PDP members like him put him in charge of the borehole,” she said.
“In other places where they have this borehole, it uses government electricity, not generators. Once there is power, people in those places fetch it for free.
“Whenever we confront him, he would ask whether the government buys the fuel. He would say that he uses our money to only buy fuel.
“Sometimes, when I don’t have money, he wouldn’t allow us to fetch. I swear by God. You can ask others.”
When I went to see Tantala, his wife told me he was asleep as he had just returned from his stall. She insisted on waking him.
I asked him if the claims were true, but before I could finish asking my first question, “The borehole is working well, there is nothing wrong with it,” he interjected. Then, he left.
Every other shop owner I tried to ask about the authenticity of the claim bluntly refused to comment.
Water Resources Commissioner Olufemi’s Response Raises More Questions
FIJ sent an email to Olufemi Oroniyi, Osun State Commissioner for Water Resources, and from his response, there were some doubts about the appropriation of the boreholes’ funding.
“To ensure fiscal responsibility which the governor is very sensitive to, the project was fixed into the supplementary budget of the State which was later appropriated by the present House of Assembly. Therefore, the project was duly captured in the supplementary budget of 2023 and due process was followed in the execution of the project,” Oroniyi told FIJ.
The Osun State Government had earlier said that it constructed each of the boreholes for N1.5 million. For 332 units, the total sums up to N498 million. However, the 2023 Budget Performance pegged the total amount for ‘boreholes & other facilities’ during the 2023 fiscal year at N707.5 million. At a performance rate of 56.5%, only N399 million was spent in 2023.
That amount is about N98 million short of the amount the government should have spent on the project, yet they claimed that the borehole project was completed.
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Oroniyi also claimed that it was the responsibility of the sanitation officers of each local government area to identify faults in each of the boreholes under their domain, and they reported that the problem was purely maintenance.
“I charged them with the responsibility of identifying the faulty boreholes in their domain. The major reason they concluded was a defect in the maintenance structure designed for the communities to manage the boreholes,” Oroniyi claimed
“Meanwhile, I have directed the General Manager of RUWESA to take inventory of the faulty boreholes, submit same to my office for onward approval to repair them and deliver back to the communities.
“Also the Water Supply and Hygiene Committees (WASHCOM ) are to be inaugurated to officially handover the facilities to the communities for onward maintenance and to achieve this, a sensitisation workshop is proposed for all the committee members for effective management of not only the boreholes but all the water facilities in their areas.”
ICPC Knows About The Project, But Yet To Conclude Investigation After Two Years
On October 31, 2023, The Osun Masterminds (TOM) petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the project, but Demola Bakare, the Osun Resident Commissioner of the ICPC, said the petition had been forwarded to its headquarters in Abuja.
“The petition is receiving necessary attention, the petition has been forwarded to our headquarters in Abuja,” Bakare said.
“Presently, we do not have a substantive chairman and there are certain things that every other person apart from the chairman cannot do. If we take many matters to court, I know that the defence lawyers can challenge us that the right person is not prosecuting that case. So, as soon as the new chairman comes, we will look at it and direct actions.”
Later in December 2023, Musa Adamu Aliyu assumed office as the ICPC’s substantive chairman, but they had yet to provide an update on their investigation of the borehole project.
FIJ sent an email to the ICPC on August 9. The ICPC had yet to respond at press time.
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