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…Also Colloquium to interrogate issues
From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Senator Monday Okpebholo administration in Edo Edo State is set to mark its one year in office with commissioning of projects across the three Senatorial Districts of the State.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, who announced this yesterday while briefing journalists in Benin City said the measure will be part of cost cutting.
The gale of commissioning according to him, will cut across “Projects in the area of healthcare delivery, projects in the area of education, projects in the area of road reconstruction, projects in the area of agricultural intervention.
“Besides commissioning of projects, we will be having a colloquium on Wednesday to interrogate issues and perspectives of what we have encountered thus far in the course of this administration. We are bringing in Speakers, some from outside the state and within the state to speak to us, to interrogate us and set a right tone for commencing the second year journey”, the Commissioner said.
Recall that the Okpebholo administration came into office on November 12 last year and would be one year in office on the 12th of this month.
Against the backdrop of the mocking Senator Okpebholo during the electoral campaign, Afegbua stated that the governor has performed well in office in the last one year.
“But we have a governor whom they denigrated. They literally thought he had no basis to contest election. They called him all kinds of names. They called him a panel-beater. Unknown to them, the panel-beaters are fixers of accidental vehicles. The Edo Accidental Vehicles is being presently panel-beated by Distinguished Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Governor of Edo State. When you have a vehicle that is badly accidented, all the headlights are off. You only require a solid panel-beater to be able to fix such a vehicle.
“And I can tell you without any fear of favour, that the Edo Accidental Vehicle is being gradually fixed by Governor Okpebholo. And the vehicle has bounced back to the road again. We are not pretending that in fixing that accidental vehicle, we have to step on toes. Toes in the area of cultism, toes in the area of kidnappers or kidnapping, toes in the area of those who plunder the resources of this states in a very wanting manner, toes against those who decided to detain the growth and development of Edo State. And we will not, you know, relent. In our efforts to fix our roads, fix our decayed infrastructure in the area of education, fix the human capital development that was taken over by foreign consultants who have since eloped from the state.
“We will continue to step on toes of those who felt they own the state and display all kinds of conquistadora conducts to enruing they dealt with our common patrimony. We are very resolute, driven by a very strong political will to confront the challenges before us. It has not been rosy, but we thank God we have brought the vehicle from the mechanical shop and on the road. We are test-driving it. And before you can bring the vehicle to test-drive, having been heavily accidented, you know that a lot of work has gone into it”.
Afegbu further disclosed that Edo was bleeding before the Okpebholo administration came on board, saying that the “Governor is insisting on due process, and our procurement laws in executing anything he has to execute. And we are happy that now we have full cabinet, 28 commissioners, new ministries created, to be in sync with what we have at the federal level, to be able to contend with developmental challenges as they arise in the state”.
He said the immediate past administration was using Edo Best as a conduit pipe to defraud the state by paying N160 million every month to their consultants from 2018 up to the time that the government exited power in 2024, whereas many schools in Benin City beyond the red roof schools built by Oshiomhole administration lacked windows, seats, and teachers.
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Similarly, Prince Kassim said while the Edo State Government invested N25 billion into Radisson Hotel under the previous government, the State owns only 20 percent equity of the hotel while a man and his family that invested N10 billion owns 80 percent equity of the hotel.
He also disclosed that the state government was for now taking a road solution on Museum of West African (MOWAA) because the government has invested N3 billion on project and was determined to rebuild the general hospital that was demolished to give way for the museum project.
The Edo State Information Commissioner further disclosed that about 60 to 63 schools were receiving attention as part of the first phase intervention, adding that “About more than half of that have been completed, part of which we will be commissioning. We also have a lot of primary health care centers, about 60 of them, that we have recovered. We have also put them to good use.
“Our general hospitals that were in shambles before now are receiving serious attention, trying to repackage them. Our teachers, the teacher population has been abysmally low. We have integrated 5,000 teachers into the Edo civil service. We have also integrated 500 civil servants to fill up vacant positions and re-energize, overhaul and re-tool the Edo Civil Service.
“In the area of security. We are proud to say that when the government of Okpebholo came on stream the first thing he did was to buy over 60 Hilux buses to assist the police, civil defence including the military for their mobility and logistics to combat crime and criminalities. In doing that, he was conscious of the fact that for us to have effective policing system, mobility is very key in getting people to locations where these crimes are committed or as a preventive measure to the outbreak of insecurity.
“We are happy that our intervention in that aspect is yielding fruits. We have not gotten to the climax of that but we can boldly say that we have impacted so positively in the area of security. Only three weeks ago, the Governor delivered 400 motor cycles to the police, civil defense and the DSS to help mobility to places that are very rural for which getting there by vehicle would prove very difficult, and the urgency of intervention also requires some urgency in movement, and we have seen how the military, police and civil defense have reached out to kidnap victims without too much time wasted in the proces”.
Price Afegbua also announced that the government has commenced work on the second flyover bridge in Benin just as he said the government was working with interested investors to commence mechanized farming in the state.
“You have been in this state, you can see the trajectory of governance. At different levels, you saw Oshiomhole. Before Oshiomhole you saw who presided over the state. You saw Obaseki eight years. Even though with self acclaimed exposure that they received N1.68 trillion, they left a debt hanging on our neck, almost N600 billion. So, on road project alone, we inherited about N187 billion of claims by contractors. And so we are just like paying for the halitosis of the powers of the Obasaki administration. And we are saying that rather than him junketing all over the world saying that he is thanking Edo people, he should come home and answer for his failures and failures”, Afegbua said.
