Fashola in the eye of the storm for alleged fraud and contract inflation , Jonathan Eze

Former governor of Lagos
State, Babatunde Raji Fashola was accused of spending
N78.3 million of Lagos tax-
payers money to update his
personal website.

He was also
accused of contract inflation.

Observers believed that the service shouldn't have cost up
to N1 million.


However, Info Access Plus
Ltd., the company to which
the contract to upgrade the
website was awarded claimed that "the website in question
is not Mr. Babatunde Raji
Fashola's personal website but
an official website which
reports and documents his
official activities as a way of socially accounting for his
stewardship to the people of
Lagos State.

"
The contractor stated that the
Lagos state government paid
less than N10 million for the website and that the cost
covered services which are
still being rendered such as
managing over 8 million
picture uploads, thousands of
videos, mobile applications for phones and tablets, among
others.


It added that former
Governor Fashola also
"personally paid for the
website, even when he was the Lagos State Governor.


The questions that remain
unanswered are:


1. The gap between the N78.3
million in the record of the
Lagos State government and the less than N10 million the
contractor claimed to have
received.


2. Was is it proper for the
former Governor to use
state's fund to pay for his personal website?


3. How true is the claim by the
company that upgraded
website that the site had
"over 8 million picture
uploads, thousands of videos, mobile applications for phones
and tablets, among others"? A
tour of the website did not
indicate any load near that.


These and more are the
questions critical observers have been raising in the last
two days since the story
broke.
Big Question on the Lagos
Website Scandal:


Where's N68.3million being the difference between the actual
cost of N10million and claimed
payment of N78.3million?!