By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The immediate past Governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki, has described the report of an administrative panel that purportedly indicted him, and others as a deliberate and desperate ploy by Governor Monday Okpepholo to confer legitimacy on his obviously misguided suspension of elected council officials.
The Source reports that the Edo state Government had on Sunday, February 16, 2024 expressed readiness to seek the assistance of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC in prosecuting Obaseki and the suspended 18 council chairmen over their alleged mismanagement of councils’ funds to the tune of N96 billion.
An administrative panel of inquiry, headed by Solomon Imohiosen, was said to have, in its findings, uncovered the diversions of N96 billion Councils’ funds into private accounts, mostly some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in the state.
A statement from the Governor’s media aide, Fred Itua, indicated that Governor, Okpebholo, while receiving the report of the panel at the weekend, promised to put machineries in motion for the prosecution of all those implicated in the frittering of the councils funds.
The Source reports that the state Governor had, on December, 18, 2024, in the wake of his suspension of the Council Chairmen instituted, a panel to investigate their financial books.
The panel was empowered to examine the financial records of the councils from December 4, 2023. to November 2024.
” The panel’s investigation uncovered significant irregularities in the financial activities of the 18 Local Government Areas”, the Governor’s spokesperson stated.
Former Governor Obaseki in a statement issued by his media assistant, Crusoe Osage, on Sunday, also, expressed serious concern about his successor’s apparent ignorance of the law.
According to him, Governor Okpebholo is yet to come to terms with the fact that he does not have the power to dictate how the Councils should be run, including the power to suspend and/or to sack.
Obaski also insisted that the Edo State Governor does not have the constitutional power to institute an investigation process against elected officials like himself .
“We have read with disdain a statement by Monday Okpebholo alleging that elected 18 Local Government Chairmen in Edo State mismanaged N96 billion, in another of his frantic efforts to justify the unconstitutional onslaught on the elected leadership of the third tier of Government.
“What is most shocking about the statement is that Okpebholo appears to be completely oblivious of the fact that he does not have supervisory responsibility over the Local Government and can therefore not set up any investigation of Government officials that are elected into office just like him.
“As a matter of fact, these Local Government Chairmen have a better claim to their democratic office than he whose election stands on a knife edge, with the election petition tribunal preparing to deliver justice in the September 21,2024 election widely believed to have been rigged.
“Also advertising Okpebholo’s ignorance is his attempt, as usual, to drag His Excellency ,Mr Godwin Obaseki into his propaganda.
“Okpebholo should kindly note that Obaseki was never obsessed with control of Local Government funds during his tenure as Okpebholo has shown himself to be in the last three months.
“We are forced to by this statement, inform Okpebholo that there are limits to his powers as Governor and, if he believes there are financial infractions in a separate tier of Government from his own, he should simply inform the relevant agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC to carry out their constitutional responsibilities”, part of the statement reads.
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