Claim: Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, claimed recently that the Oyo State Pacesetter Quarry and Asphalt Plant, concessioned to Caboncor International Technology Limited under a public-private partnership arrangement, had started producing asphalt for the construction of our roads in the state.
Our investigation revealed that the plant is currently functional. Therefore, the governor is correct and the claim is true.
Full Text
In his State of State Address on June 10 2021, delivered before members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Governor Seyi Makinde said that his administration had rescued some of the state’s moribund facilities, one of which is the Pacesetter Quarry and Asphalt Plant. The plant was concessioned to Caboncor International Technology Limited under a public-private partnership arrangement in 2020.
Governor Seyi Makinde said, ‘We are resuscitating moribund industries. We concessioned the once-moribund Agbowo Shopping Complex, Ibadan and it is now being upgraded and reconstructed. The Pacesetter Asphalt Plant and Quarry, ljaiye, which we handed over to concessionaires in May last year is now producing asphalt for the construction of our roads.’
Verification
A check on Oyo State Investment and Public Private Partnership Agency indicated that commercial activities had commenced as of 31 May 2020 ‘after several years of the facility being moribund.’
The project which cost N750 million and managed by the concessionaire Messer Caboncor Technology Limited has a reactivation capacity from 100mt/d to 350mt/d within one year from May 31, 2020.
On the 19 of December 2020, the Voice of Nigeria reports that the quarry ‘is now back to full production,’ giving indication that it was already fully operational, when Governor Makinde paid an on-the-spot assessment visit to the site of the firm.
A June 4 report listed Carboncor International Tech. Ltd, the company managing the Quarry and one other company, as partners in the Oyo State government’s Zero Potholes project, an on-going initiative to rid the state of potholes. According to the report, the two companies were doing the project free of charge for one year, as part of their corporate social responsibility.
An inside source who elected to remain anonymous told this writer that the quarry is indeed operating. ‘Yes, we are working. We have got some machines, and have upgraded the quarry from 100 tonnes per hour to 250 tonnes per hour. The Asphalt plant is currently operating at the capacity of 100 tonnes per hour.’
Conclusion
Based on media reports, reviews and criticisms, the evidence of the use of the asphalt from the Pacesetter Quarry and Asphalt company in the zero porthole initiative of the Oyo State Government, and the checks by the researcher, it is evident that the quarry is functional, and the Governor’s claim is true.
The researcher produced this fact-check per Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan with the Dubawa 2021 fellowship partnership, to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
