Godwin Obaseki, who is the former Governor of Edo State, has strongly criticized his successor, Governor Monday Okpebholo, regarding claims that his administration left a debt of N600 billion.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, stated at a press briefing marking Okpebholo’s one year in power that, as the DAILY POST news organization remembers, over N178 billion was due to road contractors.
Afegbua claimed that Obaseki was telling contractors to take out loans and continue working without making arrangements for their payment.
In a quick reply, however, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki’s media aide, rejected the claim, saying that these kinds of false stories are among the reasons nations like the United States see Nigeria as dangerous, even threatening military action.
“I believe it has become necessary for us to highlight the dangers in some of these irresponsible statements that they are making. Nigeria, we can state securely, is presently facing a threat to its existence.”
“The head of another nation’s government has declared our government to be an irresponsible, shameful, and dishonored government.”
“Therefore, when statements like this begin to come out of a state such as Edo, also run by the All Progressives Congress (APC), it supports the negative reaction that we are receiving from countries abroad.”
“Nigeria has a Debt Management Office in Abuja. No government has the authority, at any level—local, state, or federal—to take out loans or enter into any debt contract without the awareness and approval of the Debt Management Office.”
“Can you please ask: is the N600 billion that he is talking about officially recorded in the Debt Management Office?”
“If Obaseki obtained such loans or had that much debt, you would at least locate it in the DMO.”
“So he just appears and throws out falsehoods and makes this statement, creating the impression that the state is being governed by hooligans,” he said.
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