Coalition of Registered Political Parties (CRPP), and the Edo State government on Tuesday exchanged words over what the former tagged undisclosed “cost of contacts” among other issues.

In a statement made available to journalists in Benin, chairman of the CRPP, Samson Isibor, accused Governor Monday Okpebholo’s administration for “undue interference and single-handedly picking candidates in the forthcoming primary election of his party.”

The CRPP Chairman also refuted
Okpehbolo’s claim that he is the best “governor Edo has ever had and has performed better than previous governments,” describing the claim as “propaganda that is far from the truth.”

“In fact, he is the least performing Governor Edo has ever produced since its creation,” he added.

Isibor, while threatening to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to “beam its searchlights on these projects that are now the talk of the town,” questioned: “At what cost did Okpebholo award the Ramat Park flyover bridge to the Chinese company and what is the time line for the completion of the bridge?

“What is the role of First Bank in the two projects? When were they advertised for bidding and in which national newspapers?
Besides the Chinese Firm they were awarded, which other firms bidded for the construction?”

He stressed that “people of Edo State deserve to know the answers to those pertinent questions, it is their right.”

But in a shift reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, described the CRPP as a “scam, driven by one ragtag, turncoat politician, who has been feeding fat on such a clueless organisation that is not known to law.”

He added: “Since 2007, this same CRPP has been in the hands of Mr. Isibor for political negotiation. We will not glorify him with a response. Edo people are not blind, they can see the visible signs of our intervention.”