The All Progressives Congress has accused the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, of neglecting governance in the state for politics, lamenting rising insecurity, absence of proactive measures to tackle forewarned floods, and declining economic growth.
The APC made this accusation at a press conference held on Wednesday by Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, the Vice-Chairman of the media and publicity committee of the APC National Campaign Council, in Benin.
Hon. Obahiagbon said: “In between Governor Obaseki’s swashbuckling threats to APC members and placating the members of his divided party, the PDP, who have since turned him into an ATM machine in a smash and grab stratagem before the curtains are finally drawn on his lackluster four-year tenure, he has completely forgotten one important fact: that he remains the Governor of Edo State, even if for a few more months more and that from that point of view, the suspension of the governance and leadership of any State is inexcusable and unacceptable not even for electoral purposes. “
“As it is today, Edo State is on auto-pilot. Matters of governance in Edo state have now been completely abandoned, jettisoned, and forgotten completely as the outgoing Governor has turned his attention, full-time, on how to subvert the September 19th election through rigging, intimidation, arm-twisting, unbridled threats, violence, and other anti-democratic underhand tactics.”
He accused the state government of failing to react to the warnings of NEMA and an earlier press conference by the APC urging the Governor “to begin an immediate initiation of proactive measures because Edo State was among the highly probable flood-risk states based on the predictions of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).”
Instead, Hon. Obahiagbon said “Mr. Godwin Obaseki has rather chosen to continue sharing Edo state’s money to “tax collectors”, whilst governance has been completely abandoned and now running on autopilot.”
“Even though we have repeatedly raised alarm on the level of insecurity in Edo state, the state government has only continued to pay lip service to security issues. We have said it for the umpteenth time that it is morally unconscionable and represents a security black spot for the outgoing Governor to cart away over 700 million naira as security votes and allocate to the Police a paltry monthly payment of five million naira.”
“Our pleas of an immediate increase and back payments have not been heeded to. We call on Governor Obaseki to forthwith increase the monthly security allocation of the police from a paltry five million naira to something more reasonable.”
Flaying the Governor for his failure to fulfill his campaign promises including the provision of 200,000 jobs and the building of the Gelegele seaport, Hon. Obahiagbon urged Governor Obaseki to spend the months left in his four-year term on governance and how to keep the state together before a new APC government is elected and sworn-in.
By Prince John Mayaki
