Edo APC, Warns Obaseki Administration Against Borrowing


By Elvis Omoregie


The Edo State All Progressives Congress APC, yesterday warned Governor Godwin Obaseki, to stop securing loans, noting that the "N9 billion" loan recently approved by the House of Assembly was needless and will plunge the state into financial difficulties.

The Acting Chairman of the state APC, Jarrett Tenebe gave the warning at a Press briefing in Benin City. He said the state is already suffering under a debt profile of N135 billion and $35.6 billion.

Jarrett said, "While it is a monumental disaster that Edo State patrimony has been swindled by Obaseki and his co-travellers with an unassailable, humongous debt profile of N135 billion and $35.6 billion, the governor is unyielding and unstoppable in his characteristic design to leave Edo State in ruin, by asking for a facility of N17.5 billion Naira few days ago, which was said to be N9 million.

"It is important to state, that it is now in public and political space that the
fiscal budget of Edo State passed a few weeks ago before the Edo State
House of Assembly proceeded on leave without the commencement of the
execution of the budget by the executive. It is most disheartening that the Edo
State Government now is requesting for a facility of N17.5 billion with
no corollary of the project attached there to the said facility and also that the
facility is not contained as loan to be taken in the 2024 fiscal budget just
recently passed. A cursory perusal of the entire budget does not reveal where
the project for the facility is ever captured.

"Information at the behest of the members of the Edo State House of Assembly is to the effect that they were recalled from their holiday or leave by the
Speaker on the request of the State Governor for the immediate approval of
the said facility which according to them were said to be N9 billion but as
event unfolded, after the mammoth request by the opposition in the house as to the rationale for a facility as stupendous as N9 billion for fathom
projects which only existed in the imagination of the Governor, it was
discovered that the facility was not even N9 billion but a figure wrapped in secrecy as much as N17.5 billion to which the opposition in the house rejected and or refused to be part of the approval.

"While it is important to state that the citizens of Edo State has been take through difficult and hard times by the Obaseki led administration it is our request and most profoundly too that the Obaseki administration to stop these borrowings which its proceeds found their way into his pocket and that of his co-travelers, as Edo State has suffered enough decay in infrastructural and other developmental sects.

"Edo State is yearning for a bold change hence we are using this medium to call
on the Edo People to completely reject the PDP and their shenanigans and
vote massively for the APC that offers the best alternative to the present
administration," he added.

Responding in a statement, commissioner for information and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, said Opposition politics is not cynicism.

The statement reads, "We are perplexed to learn of the quite laughable and incredibly ridiculous tantrums attributed to the new acting chairman of the Edo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jarret Tenebe where he made baseless and spurious allegations on the fiscal management of our dear State by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government.

"In his infertile rambling, Tenebe made wild and completely off-the-mark comments suggesting that Edo State is owing $35 billion.Even if that was what was written for him, he should have known that the figuĊ•e is wrong and can't be true . 

In reality, our debt stock is not a secret and in fact, we are ‘under borrowed’. Emperor Tenebe would have known this if he understood the economics of governance, fiscal responsibility and debt-to-GDP ratio.

The recent facility approved by the State Assembly was to amongst other projects, enable the State Government to procure electric buses to enhance the state's transportation system.

"Tenebe’s attention must be drawn to the fact that opposition politics is not cynicism. Opposition politics requires intelligence, tact and not childish tantrums.

"Edo people know better and are too intelligent to be swayed by such antics, smear campaigns and cheap blackmail. We urge Tenebe and his ilk in the APC to stop chasing shadows but rather funnel those energies to reawakening their comatose party ahead of the September 2024 governorship election," he added

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