Last week Governor, Godwin Obaseki of Edo State vowed to probe the N30b expended on the Benin stormwater project by the administration of his immediate past predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Obaseki made this known while inspecting the Textile Mill Road catchment of the project in Benin City a few weeks ago had said the project was a ploy to defraud Edo people of its wealth.
The governor further claimed that the stormwater project was designed not to function for the benefit of Edo people. He however vowed that his administration would probe the project and recover all the looted funds through it.
Political observers tackled Godwin Obaseki who was the Chief of Staff to Oshiomhole as at when the project was conceived. Some raised concern on why he didn’t probe the contract when he was made Governor in 2016 and why he had to wait till after falling apart with his political godfather and the ruling party before raising alarm.
The development has however attracted reaction from the Edo State chapter of the Coalition of Registered Political Parties (CRPP), which urged Obaseki, to shelve his plans to probe the N30bn Benin Stormwater Project. CRPP described the governor’s move as diversionary. Obaseki also lambasted the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, for his role in supervising the N30bn Benin City stormwater project. Agba was the Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities and supervised the project under Oshiomhole, when phase 1 was conceived and executed.
According to the governor: “The person who supervised this project, today, calls himself a Minister and is supervising bigger projects for the Federal Government. This is just unacceptable. What we are doing now is different from what was done in the last administration. There is almost a two-meter difference. So, there is no way that you can drain water from low ground to a high plane.”
He added that the state government under Adams Oshiomhole spent N30 billion on the project, claiming to want to take away the people’s sufferings, but the project was not designed to meet that purpose.
“The stormwater project was a fraud. It was a contract to defraud Edo people. From what I see in this catchment area, the project was never designed to take water away from the area. The area was never drained.
Obaseki assured Edo people that his administration will do everything necessary to drain the area and restore life to the people, noting: “With what we have done now with less amount of money, we are going to finally drain this area and bring back life to the people in this catchment area. I don’t like probing but this time we have to set up a panel to get the facts of what happened. We can’t throw away such a large amount of money. People must be made to account for their time in service in government.”
Disagreeing with the planned probe, Edo state Chairman of CRPP, Mr. Samson Isibor, faulted the probe. He stressed that the motive behind the probe was to drag the name of Agba to the mud and eventually seek his removal from office.
