From Tony Osauzo, Benin

Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, alleged that the state is in serious crisis due to bad governance by Governor Godwin Obaseki.

State chairman of the party, Col. David Imuse (Retd), while addressing journalists in Benin, also alleged that Edo State  glory had been brutalised in the last six years by the  PDP-led  government.

“In six years, Governor Obaseki has signed more MoUs, partnerships and agreements with individuals and organisations, than any state governor in Nigeria since 1960. Obaseki’s Benin Enterprise and Industrial Park, Gelegele seaport, Ossiomo Power Plant, Ologbo Modular Refinery, Benin Technical College, Edo Tech Park, Edo Innovation Hub, Benin Creative Hub, University of Innovation, Edo North Airport project, EMOWAA are a few of the comical results of these MoUs. Yet Mr. Obaseki who has less than two years in office is proposing a scam he calls 30-year development plan for Edo State with a 2050 result date.”

Imuse also accused Obaseki’s government of boosting the domestic debt of the state since 2016 by N75 billion, exclusive of the state’s foreign debt of over $280 million from available records, making the state the second most indebted state in the country.

He said the governor just forwarded a bill the State Assembly for additional N25 billion bond to further impoverish Edo citizens yet unborn.

Imuse claimed  the Obaseki’s  government had sold the state owned Nigerian Observer Newspaper to his cronies under a dubious Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, adding that the government was concealing the facts about the position of the Newspaper.

But reacting, Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, said Edo was not the second most indebted state.

While describing the APC as unserious party, he urged that they do more research on how to be an opposition party.

“It shows how lazy APC is. If you Google, you will know which state is most indebted or the party should contacted Debt Management Office (DMO) to get their facts right.”

He explained that borrowing was not a bad thing as long as it was deployed to improve infrastructure in the state.

On Observer Newspaper,  he said the firm was still 100 per cent owned by the state government, saying  government was reorganising the newspaper and giving out to new management in order to make it competitive with other private media outfits in the country.