APC seeks clarifications on Edo multi-billion naira investments 

Transition committee fears Okpebholo will inherit empty treasury

As the Transition Committee in Edo State awaits the clarification of the stake owned by the state government in some investments, stakeholders have expressed disappointment over the government’s silence on Ossiomo Power Plant, Edo Modular Refinery and Radisson Blu Hotel.

Committees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was declared winner of the last governorship polls, held a joint session where facts about the three companies were discussed.

The PDP team, during the meeting, promised that the matter would be discussed with Governor Godwin Obaseki. But the APC committee declared that the incoming administration of Monday Okpebholo would inherit an empty treasury from Obaseki.

While requesting documents on the ownership and stake of the Edo government in the projects, the opposition party said it was stunned when government officials feigned ignorance in such mega projects.

Similarly, a committee member, Kassim Afegbua, expressed concern that two weeks to the end of its tenure, the Obaseki government sent a supplementary budget to the House of Assembly, the fourth in 10 months.

Afegbua, in the statement entitled ‘Empty Treasury Awaits Okpebholo as Obaseki Seeks Additional Budget’, alleged that the government had plundered N1.5 trillion in the past seven years with no visible legacy infrastructure on the ground across the state.

Obaseki, on Monday, asked the House to approve a supplementary budget to prepare funds for the new government to take off.

Afegbua said despite all the huge allocations through the previous budgets, the three senatorial districts had been cut apart due to bad roads across the state, making moving from one location to another difficult.