Ogiadomhe not linked with privatised company – Edo Govt

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Edo State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Abdul Oroh, has cleared the air on the ownership of some companies slated for probe by the state government over suspicion of fraud.

P.M. NEWS recalls that the state government on Wednesday, while speaking through its Information Commissioner, Louis Odion, said it would begin the probe of a $31 million cement company project which was started by the government of former governor Lucky Igbinedion, which it however said was a fraudulent project.

Other projects listed for probe include a quarry company in Ikpeshi, Akoko-Edo local government area; Solid Mineral Processing Industry which was owned 100 percent by the state government and was established in 2003 at the sum of N85 million. This company was sold to a company called Copex Solid Mineral Processing Company which the government said was owned by the then deputy governor of Edo state, Mike Ogiadhome.

But Oroh, who addressed journalists in Benin Friday, said that latest checks indicated that the company is not owned by Ogiadhome, adding that Ogiadomhe only chaired the Technical Committee on Privatisation.

“Mike Ogiadomhe was the Chairman Technical Committee on Privatisation as at that time of the privatisation and not the owner of the company,” Oroh said.