*Oshiomhole alleges contract duplication by ruling party
BARELY 48 hours after the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) presidential campaign rally in Benin City, the Edo state capital, aggrieved PDP youths under the aegis of Grassroots Youths Initiative (GYI) weekend staged a protest against the state leadership of the party over alleged diversion of the presidential largesse meant for the youths by a party leader and campaign coordinator of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) campaign organisation in the state.
The over one hundred youths with various placards, who took their protests to the state secretariat of the party barricaded the Benin -Sapele -Warri express road, thereby restricting human and vehicular movement on the busy Benin road for several hours.
President of the group, Osarobo Idahosa, said they were defrauded by a party leader who denied them of their pay from the presidential campaign largesse voted for the youths and vowed to work against the party if the money is not made available to them.
Idahosa alleged that State Coordinator of the PDP Presidential Campaign, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is the brain behind the diversion, alleging that N1.5 billion was earmarked for the rally but that they did not get their share and that “if the leadership of PDP fail to do the needful before the election day, the youths of the state will ensure the party fails. We want transparency; we do not want individuals to decide the fate of this state. The money that was meant to be given to the youths in the state should be given to the youths. Enough is enough,” he said.
In another development, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole weekend during the inauguration of a World Bank-assisted N7.8 billion gully erosion control in devastated areas like Auchi in Etsako West local government council, Queen Ede in Ogbeson quarters Benin City and parts of Ekheuan Road, accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of duplicating contracts that where never completed when it was in government.
Oshiomhole said he was shocked that the Queen Ede erosion purportedly awarded by the state government before he came to power was also reportedly awarded by the Federal Government when his administration approached the Federal Government for intervention.
To ensure that the GYI protest did not go violent, men of the Edo State Police Command led by the Commissioner of Police, Folusho Adebanjo, addressed the angry youths, urging them to channel their grievances to the appropriate quarters.
Ize-Iyamu said the youths’ claims were baseless and unfounded adding that they are mischief makers working in hand with the opposition party in the state, the All Progressive Congress (APC) to drag him and the party into crisis ahead of the general election. “No such amount was realised for the presidential rally by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the allegation is false and laughable”, he said.
But a chieftain of the party who does not want his name in print accused a former governorship candidate of the party of being the mastermind of the protest. “He has been in Abuja doing his politics, we don’t see him here it is the people that are here and are ready to work that the party will work with”
Speaking at the Queen Ede erosion site, Oshiomhole said “My first visit to this place was on a Sunday, about the second or third week of my resumption of office, someone drew my attention that there was a serious problem in this area, I came around and I was shocked at what I saw, but I saw an abandoned tractor around the valley and when I asked for the status of the project report, the ministry official told me that job was on going and subsequently I invited him to accompany to show me what he meant by job is ongoing because what I saw here was an abandoned equipment and there was not one worker on site and when we came here, he showed me the tractor and he said that is what they mean by the job is on-going by the fact that there is a tractor abandoned.
