Okpebholo sets up 14-member panel to investigate Obaseki

 • Probes empty, diversionary, says ex-gov’s aide
• Governor restores Oba of Benin’s full powers

The Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has constituted a 14-member state Assets Verification Committee to probe the administration of former governor Godwin Obaseki.  

MEANWHILE, Crusoe Osagie, the media aide to Obaseki, has said the barrage of empty probes by the governor, Monday Okpebholo, is a smoke screen to mask his incompetence and unpreparedness for office.
  
Osagie, in a statement, said the governor, who couldn’t secure his mandate from the people, is devoid of ideas and lacks a clear vision to drive development in the state, noting that Okpebholo is resorting to cheap political theatrics, using a circus of meaningless probes to distract from his glaring incompetence and lack of direction.
  
He said the governor is acting as if the people of Edo State were an undiscerning mob and is now staging a spectacle similar to a gladiatorial duel in the Ancient Roman Colosseum to deceive the people.
  
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a laughable and utterly ridiculous statement by the Okpebholo administration setting up a 14-member State Assets Verification Committee to probe the administration of his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, who is globally acclaimed to have run one of the most transparent, accountable and prudent government in the history of Nigeria.

In another development, Okpebholo has abolished the new traditional councils created by his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, in Edo South Senatorial District

Okpebholo also restored the statutory financial entitlements of the Benin Traditional Council (BTC), ordering that the status quo before the creation of the now-abolished councils be maintained.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Fred Itua, made this known in a statement issued yesterday in Benin City.

Itua added that the governor also complied with the Federal Government’s directive by restoring the full statutory rights of the Oba of Benin on the ownership of ancient artefacts looted by the British colonial forces during the 1897 Benin massacre.
  
The statement pointed out that the decisions were in line with the governor’s move to further right the wrongs of the immediate-past administration and foster cordial relations between the government and the people.