‘We inherited ‘bleeding’ government from Obaseki’ – Edo Commissioner Kassim Afegbua

The Edo State Government said it inherited a “bleeding government” from its predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, on November 12, 2024.

DAILY POST reports that the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, stated this on Monday at a press briefing marking 365 days of the governor in office.

“Edo State was bleeding before we took over, and thank God that the governor is insisting on due process and procurement laws in executing anything he has to execute.

“This administration inherited rot and decay in infrastructure in the state. Governor Okpebholo is gradually fixing infrastructure through practical governance,” he said.

Kassim alleged that governance in the state was being run by foreign consultants who were being paid hugely to the detriment of civil servants employed to perform the work.

He opined that if not for Governor Okpebholo, the Edo Civil Service would have been a “joke of the century” because the previous government abandoned civil servants while spending excessively on consultants.

He added that Governor Okpebholo has recovered the state’s civil service from consultants and injected new blood into the system.

The commissioner said that out of the N1.6 trillion collected by former Governor Obaseki over his eight years in office, he left behind a debt of over N600 billion for the incumbent government.

He alleged that 41 agencies were established by the past administration as conduit pipes to siphon state resources.

Kassim, who was a member of the Asset Verification Committee set up by the governor, added that the immediate past government paid N160 million monthly to consultants under the EdoBest Education Programme between 2018 and 2024.

He said the committee was informed that the amount was for writing lesson notes on tablets built on application that allows teachers to key into them for seamless classroom teaching.

Kassim further disclosed that of the $75 million allocated to EdoBest, there was only a record of $5 million spent, leaving $70 million unaccounted for.

He added that the contractor handling the construction of Stella Obasanjo Hospital was owed almost N7.3 billion by the Obaseki government.

He also stated that the consultant recruited by the previous administration to oversee completion of the hospital was paid N965 million.

“By the time the Obaseki administration was exiting power, the guy [contractor] resigned his appointment when his fee had been paid 100%. We extended an invitation to him. We never saw anything. We never saw him appear before our investigative panel under the Asset Verification Committee.

“To date, we couldn’t even define the work he did. Now, the government has given a marching order. Those funds will be paid. Even though it was an over-bloated contract, the funds will be paid. And, in no time, the Edo people will reap the benefits of that particular hospital.

“So, on the road project alone, we inherited N187 billion of paid claims by contractors. And so, we are just paying for the halitosis of the past of the Obaseki administration. And we are saying that rather than him jumping all over the world saying that he’s thanking the Edo people, he should come home and answer for his failures and failings.

“The same thing goes for the Edo Education Hub at Iyaro. You remember that the building was burnt down and it has now been repaired? The structure they have there, the noise they make out there, you would think that everything has been done and completed.

“But, again, the same pattern of abandoned projects continues where the government owes N3.3 billion according to the contractor. Then you now begin to ask yourself, how much is the total cost of such a project that N3.3 billion will still be outstanding? It means that, in the first instance, they were not paying contractors.

“They were just telling them, go and take money, get a bank guarantee, and do this job, we’ll pay you, when they were rushing to do all this to get votes,” he added.

He stated that to mark one year in office, the governor would commission a litany of projects across the state.

Afegbua said the projects to be commissioned cut across roads, schools, healthcare, and agriculture in the three senatorial districts.

According to him, the commissioning of projects would take place between November 7 and 9, 2025.

While describing the Okpebholo-led government as practical governance, he added that dignitaries from within and outside the state are invited to grace the occasion.

“We are happy that across the entire state, we have about 60 to 63 schools receiving attention as part of the first-phase intervention. More than half of these have been completed, part of which we will be commissioning. We also have a lot of primary healthcare centres, about 60 of them, that we have recovered. We have also put them to good use.

“Besides commissioning projects, we will be holding a colloquium on Wednesday to interrogate issues and perspectives 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. Governors will be there, there are quite a number of other ministers, and other dignitaries from across the country. They will grace the occasion. It will also afford us the opportunity to reconstruct and recollect all our interventions in charting a new course in the process of rebuilding a new Edo,” he stated.