Ex-Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) former ally of Governor Godwin Obaseki, Hon. Charles Idahosa, yesterday, picked holes on Wednesday Commissioning of the State Secretariat building along Sapele Road in Benin City by former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
He pointed out that the project was not a new one but was built and commissioned in 1973 by the then governor of Midwest and later Bendel State, late Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia.
Besides, he criticized Governor Godwin Obaseki’s style of not disclosing costs and projects details to the public.
“How can Governor Godwin Obasek say he is commissioning a new Secretariat? The Secretariat was built and commissioned by Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia as military governor of Bendel State in 1973. There was a time part of it was gutted by fire and it was rebuilt.
“It is a shame that he brought former President Goodluck to come and commission a project that has already been commissioned about 50 years ago. I am shocked that they have allowed him to get away with everything he is doing because he is governor, we have former governors here, we have former national chairman of parties here and they just allow him to get away with whatever he is doing. Is this how things are done?
“There is one strange thing he also did, look Wike and other governors, when he was governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, before a project is commissioned, you see the commissioner in charge of the project who will talk about the project and all that was done, you will see the contractor who will talk about the project but in this case of Obaseki, there is nothing like that, nobody knows the cost of the project, nobody knows the contractor, nobody knows the kind of work they did.
“But the truth of the matter is that there is no new project that Obaseki brought the former president to come and commission. It is unfortunate that this is the level Edo State has degenerated to and nobody is talking or calling the governor to order”, Idahosa lamented.
He also condemned celebration regular payment of workers salaries by the state government.
“I am shocked that the governor’s payment of salary of employees is now a news story that should be reported. Is it not his responsibility to pay the salaries of civil servants working in the state, when has payment of the salary of civil servants become an achievement? Who is supposed to pay their salaries? It is quite unfortunate”, Idahosa said.
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I read your piece and it made a whole lot of sense. What do you expect from a governor that has bastardized the concept of democracy and ruled arbitrarily for the past seven and half years without meaningful impacts on the people of the State and without virgin projects to showcase for the campaign of his adopted son, Asue Ighodalo? It is only a criminally minded person most especially one in a position of authority that would execute a project for the collective without appraising and giving a comprehensive breakdown of the project to the public. The truth of the matter which PDP will always frown at because of party affiliation and sentimentality is that, if we keep mute without questioning those in authority for accountability, we will always found ourselves going around the same cycle of political manipulation, deception, desperation and backwardness. I rest my case.