9th November, 2024
By Jethro Ibileke
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has alleged that the incoming government of All Progressives Congress (APC), is already spending into the N27 billion he set aside for the payment for projects and other obligations by his administration.
Obaseki is due to hand over to Senator Monday Okpebholo on Tuesday, 12 November.
But speaking at the in Benin, at inauguration of a 10-man caretaker committee of the State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Benin Friday, Obaseki alleged that APC is borrowing between ₦2 billion and ₦5 billion to finance the inauguration of the incoming government of Senator Monday Okpebholo
“In this holiday period, they will want to spend as much money as possible to confuse the people. They are going to struggle to change their perception.
“We have almost N27 billion to pay for projects and obligations, but they have started blowing it, and they have gone to borrow money for the inauguration which is going to cost them N2 to N5 billion.
“That is the money they will first take from the treasury,” he said.
Obaseki also accused the inauguration committee of the APC of neither carrying the outgoing government along nor inviting him to the inauguration ceremony.
“They are doing an inauguration and the Governor is not even invited. It is like they are starting a brand new government and a brand new State,” he said.
Responding to these allegations, a member of the APC transition committee, Prince Kassim Afegbua, dismissed with a wave of hand, Obaseki’s claim of the APC already spending into the almost ₦27 billion he kept for the payment of ongoing projects.
He said: “Is that not an indictment on his government that a government that is supposed to organize inauguration for us is running away?
“Is Donald Trump going to inaugurate himself? Is it not an outgoing government that should inaugurate an incoming one? Does it make sense that somebody coming in is the one who will organize his own event?”
Commenting on Obaseki’s lamentation of not being carried along or invited to the inauguration, Afegbua said:
All over the world, the sitting government plans and organize inauguration for their incoming successor. That they’ve been running away is not enough that we are not inviting him when they’re not forthcoming,” he said.
