Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives and member representing Surulere I Constituency of Lagos State, has come under fire for erecting water tanks his constituents cannot use.

The lawmaker, who was recently reelected, has earned the disappointment of some of his constituents.

Speaking to FIJ, residents of the Municipal area of Surulere narrated how the lawmaker erected solar-powered water tanks and borehole systems in 2021 but they refused to work.

When FIJ visited the area, some of the residents, for fear of earning the wrath of the lawmaker’s loyalists, asked that their identities be concealed.

Bode Akingboye (not real name), a resident of Adeniji street in Municipal, said, “We have been paying Mallams N500 to fetch water for us from a borehole near a filling station. The water is not clean, but there’s no alternative.

READ ALSO: Reps Agree to Re-Examine Rejected Gender Bills

“After Gbajabiamila erected these tanks, it worked for a short while, but afterwards, they stopped working. This place (pointing to the ground below the taps) has been dry ever since, and it’s just here for decoration.”

Kola Abisoye (not real name) could not recall when the project was commissioned, but he remembered it didn’t work for long, as there were no batteries to keep them going.

“They didn’t bring batteries; they only put solar panel, with no batteries to store the power,” Abisoye told FIJ. “Normally, we usually trek 100 to 300 meters to get water, but we thought with this project, we would have water because compounds here don’t have their own water.

READ ALSO: Ministry of Works Keeps Budgeting Millions for Fence Project Completed in 2020, Tracka Reveals

“We have held several meetings and written to Gbajabiamila, but he does not respond, so we decided to contribute money to try and fix it ourselves. Since last year, we have been talking.”

FIJ found several tanks with posters of Gbajabiamila and Desmond Elliot, a lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, in the area, but they weren’t working.

Checks by FIJ showed that TLMB Construction, the project’s executor, though inactive, was incorporated as a private company as far back as February 23, 2010.

The only available information on the company is its Suite B84 Efab Shopping Mall, Area 11, Abuja address, and the names of its directors: Mubaraq Taiye Ibrahim, Lawal Babatunde Ibrahim, Ibrahim Babatunde Ibrahim, and Ibrahim Ajibola Tajudeen.

FIJ found no contact information of the company, and no more information on the directors.

When FIJ called Gbajabiamila, his number was unreachable. We sent a text message, a message on Twitter and an email, but there was no response at press time.