Ondo State Government has refuted the claim of the immediate past Commissioner for Transport, Otunba Nicholas Tofowomo, that he initiated the construction of Alape Inland Port in the state.

Tofowomo, who is a Senatorial Candidate in the Southern district of the state under the Platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had gone public with a publication claiming he initiated the project with the promise to complete it if voted for.

Briefing journalists, the Special Adviser to the governor on Transportation, Mr. Tobi Ogunleye who was flanked by the Chairman of OSOPADEC, Mr Gbenga Edema, noted that the port was approved by the Federal Government in 2013 along with nine other inland ports in different states in Nigeria with the condition for each state to construct one kilometer access road to the location, but only Ondo state did not make any effort towards the construction of the port.

He noted that the previous administration in Ondo State in 2014 only set up a 13-man committee headed by Tofowomo to take action on the project but unfortunately nothing was done by the committee till the expiration of the tenure of the Dr Olusegun Mimiko-led administration against the claim of the then Commissioner.

Ogunleye disclosed that the state governor, Arakurin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, upon receiving the request letter from the Ministry of Transportation earlier this year about the project, swung into action and instructed OSOPADEC to take up the responsibility of constructing the access road to the Port, as demanded by the Federal government.

“We want to make our position known on the fallacious publication by one of the Senatorial candidates in Ondo state, the former Commissioner for Transportation, Chief Nicholas Tofowomo, who, either intentionally or maliciously decided to drag the name of this government into his electioneering campaign.