A former Commissioner for Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua on Wednesday says Governor Monday Okpebholo‘s achievements in just 15 days in office has surpassed what his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki achieved in one year.
Speaking in an interview with TheScrutiny, Afegbua who is a member of the 14-man panel set up by Governor Okpebholo to probe the Obaseki administration also said Edo people deserve to know how the state’s debt profile moved from N43bn to N500bn in the last eight years.
The former governorship aspirant who is also a member of the Assets Verification Committee added that they will also called on relevant agencies to investigate Obaseki’s handling of the affairs of Edo state in the last eight years.
“Obaseki should be facing probe with the EFCC and not all these nonsense talks about with-hunting, blackmail and what have you. We will try as much as possible to tell the relevant agencies to interrogate all his financial transactions while he was governor. The tax payers of Edo, the voters who are the repositors of power deserve to know the operations of any governor at any point in time”.
“What the APC government of Governor Monday Okpebholo has achieved in the last 15 days is commendable to the point that we throw a challenge to Obaseki to come to Edo and walk on the streets and see things for himself. If you see what the governor has achieved in 15 days, you will think he has been in government for one year”.
“He has commenced the construction of 450 metres road overhead bridge that is meant to solve the endemic problem of Ramat Park and Ikpoba Slope. He is going to do that of Dawson street and Sapele road. Even though there was a Commissioner for Road and Bridges in Obaseki’s government, they didn’t construct one single bridge in all their eight years in office”.
Responding to those calling on Governor Okpebholo to face governance and desist from the probe, Afegbua said “It is convenient for them to run commentary because talk is cheap but we are not going to be persuaded by their outlandish arguments, trying to blackmail us and saying that we should face governance.”
“We don’t need Obaseki’s loyalists to tell us to face governance. We know that we have the mandate of the people of Edo to govern for the next four years and how we pursue that will resonate with our own manifesto and developmental agenda which we set out during our campaigns”.
“Yes, what Okpebholo has achieved in 15 days, Obaseki couldn’t achieve in four years. He ran a government that took Edo debt profile from N43.5bn to N500bn in eight years. That is the 33 year-old history of Edo from 1991 till 2024. That is to say, all the debt we acquire from 1991 till 2016 when Obaseki came on board was N43bn but Obaseki took it to N500bn in eight years”.
“In Nigeria today, we are number three in the hierarchy of states in debt under the Debt Management Office. Is that something to cheer about? So, we have a herculean task on our hands to see how we can recover the state from this kind of financial malfeasance”.
