Ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki and Prince Kassim Afegbua
Taking stock of the one-year journey of the Governor Monday Okpebholo administration in Edo State, the government on Monday blew the lid off alleged multi-billion Naira scam by the immediate past Governor Godwin Obaseki through some of his touted ‘legacy’ projects.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, at a media parley to unveil activities and programmes for the first anniversary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, opened a can of worms, cataloguing what he called “a litany of woes” of the previous administration, and detailing how the government allegedly syphoned the state’s resources through “shady transactions” like the Radisson Blu Hotel, the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Education Hub, the Edo Museum of West Africa Arts (EMOWAA) EdoBest, among others.
Lamenting that Obaseki left the state “bleeding” in his eight years in office, Afegbua said with his self- acclaimed exposure that they received N1.68 trillion for the period, “they left a debt hanging on our neck; almost N600 billion. So, on road project alone, we inherited about N187 billion of claims by contractors”.
The commissioner said though the Radisson Hotel was a beautiful idea because it would be the first five-star hotel in the state, he however questioned the transaction behind it. He said “You can’t go to stock market to attract N25 billion funding for a hotel. You invested the N25 billion into the hotel and by the time it was five months to your exit, one of your friends went to register a company and he brought in N10 billion equity, and you ceded 80 percent ownership to him and Edo State that spent N25 billion plus was left with no option than 20 percent share.
“And you ask yourself, what level of technocrats or technocratic decision was that? Ten billion taking such eminent position in the ownership of Radisson Hotel to a state government that expended N25 billion?
“Then you now start hearing some very curious figures that that place is going to take about N63 billion for an existing hotel called Ritz Hotel for which the building was never demolished. You will expend N63 billion?”
On the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, he said it was supposed “to wear the garment” of a General Hospital when the contract was awarded, but by the time the administration left, it was only 50-55% completed, yet “They invited (Olusegun) Obasanjo, former President of the Federal Republic, and they commissioned the place.
“With the commissioning of the project, the understanding is that, oh, it is ready for use. As we speak, there is no electricity there. There is no water, mortuary is not there. Doctors’ restroom is not there. Doctors’ pavilion is not there. So many things.
“And to crown it all, the contractor is being owed almost N7.3 billion. The consultant recruited to oversee the completion of that place, he charged N965 million, almost a billion Naira. And by the time the administration was exiting power, the guy resigned his appointment when his fee had been paid 100%.
“We extended invitation to him. We never saw anything. We never saw him appear before the Assets Verification Committee and to date, we couldn’t even define the work he did”.
Afegbua said despite that, “Now, the government has given a marching order that funds will be paid. Even though it was an over-bloated contract, the funds will be paid and in no time, Edo people will reap the benefits of that particular hospital”.
According to the commissioner, the same thing goes for the much-hyped Education Hub at Iyaro. “You remember that that building was burnt down, and it was now rebuilt. The structure they have there, the noise they make out there, you would think that everything had been done and completed.
“But again, the same pattern of abandoned projects, where the government is owing N3.3billion, according to the contractor. And then you 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 past, they were not paying contractors. They were just telling them go and take money, get bank guarantee and do this job, we’ll pay you when they were going. Because they were rushing to do all this to get votes, but Edo people were not deceived. They gave their votes to Monday (Okpebholo)”.
He said the education ministry had since been asked to move there, stating that “While they are there, we’ll be fixing other parts that are left… The top is uncompleted, when there is supposed to be a demonstration school in that place. When we talk, we talk with facts of what we met on ground”.
Afegbua accused Obaseki of using the much-hyped EdoBEST as a conduit pipe to defraud the state, disclosing that the government was “paying N160 million every month to their consultants from 2018 up to the time that the government exited power in 2024”, whereas infrastructure in terms of decent school buildings and classrooms was zero with students sitting on bare floor in some schools to learn.
Another “conduit pipe” identified by Afegbua was in the use of consultants to usurp the functions and roles of civil servants such that “in the process, 41 agencies were established…to fleece the resources of the state”.
Noting that but for this administration, Edo Civil Service would have been a joke of the century” because of abandonment while so much resources were expended on consultants, Afegbua expressed satisfaction that “we have come very strongly to inject new blood into that system”.
Perhaps the most controversial ‘legacy’ project of the Obaseki administration is the Edo Museum of West Africa Arts (EMOWAA) which, like the Radisson Blu Hotel, was believed to belong to the state but was later discovered not to be so despite the state’s huge investments in it.
The over a century-old Specialist Hospital at the centre of Benin City was demolished by Obaseki to house the controversial museum.
Afegbua said the position of the state government “with respect to the N3bn we invested there by the previous government” was yet to be concluded. The management of the museum were discovered to have taken more land than they were given which the government has decided to cede to them, but at a cost.
According to the commissioner, “the land that we are ceding to them now has to be defined on the basis of our equity involvement because government is not in the business of throwing away money in the name of investment that will not bring any return to the state”.
In furtherance of that, the state House of Assembly would be conducting public hearing on the two controversial Redisson Hotel and EMOWAA projects following a letter sent to it by Governor Okpebholo demanding a probe of the projects.
Calling out Obaseki, Afegbua expressed consternation that Edo had just “like paying for the halitosis of the powers of the Obaseki administration, and we are saying that rather than him junketing all over the world saying that he is thanking Edo people, he should come home and answer for his failures and failures”.