Opinion
On futile efforts by Okpebholo’s asset verification team to malign the image of Obaseki’s administration
By Crusoe Osagie
IN his most recent jaundiced scribbling, Chief Press Secretary to Senator Monday Okpebholo, Fred Itua painted Wednesday, February 5th, 2025, as a day of doom and gloom and he was accurate. However, he tried to beguile the public about the actual reason why it was a black Wednesday.
The primary purpose of this rebuttal is to provide clarity to Edo people and Nigerians about the real reason for Okpebholo’s Wednesday melancholy.
On that day, Edo people woke up to the news of the suspension of Okpebholo’s chief law officer, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Samson Osagie who was suspended for ‘financial infractions’.
Suspended side by side with the Justice Commissioner was the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Damian Lawani for the same allegation of financial sleaze, bringing to a head the assault on the Local Government Councils and their elected leaders which began since December.
To put it mildly, for the last three months, Edo State has been a lost cause.
Market women are in disarray.
Doctors went on strike over the imposition of an unqualified Jarret Tenebe’s brother, Nelson as Chief Executive of the State Hospital Management Agency.
There was insurrection in the Edo State Security Corps, popularly called Vigilante, who have hitherto helped the police in no small measure to keep the State safe.
Transportation employees and employers have not been left out, embarking on various protests over the activities of hoodlums engaged by the Okpebholo government
In the face of all these palpable reasons for doom and gloom, Itua in his article attempted a deflection and distraction of Edo people from the real crisis, citing phantom allegations against Obaseki by Okpebholo’s Asset Verification Committee, who were mostly engaged to create some ‘food for the boys’
Another major flaw of the so-called Okpebholo Asset Verification Committee, is the chequered reputation of the Chairman, Ernest Afolabi Umakhihe, a retired federal permanent secretary who managed to become a multi-billionaire working for the civil service for 35 years. Pray tell, how can anyone, without his hand in the government’s cookie jar, make billions of naira working as a civil servant?
*MoU Government*
In his poorly scripted presser, Itua correctly identified Obaseki’s government as an ‘MoU government’ but conspicuously failed to acknowledge the numerous assets, achievements, and projects realized through these same MoUs. Otherwise, what assets under the Obaseki-led administration are they verifying in the Asset Verification Committee if the said MoUs were not productive? Or does Itua need to be told that every asset he mentioned, including the Radisson Hotel Project, Benin City Mall, and MOWAA, among others, are direct products of these MoUs?
It’s quite an irony that a government that, within just 90 days, has suspended its own Chief Law and Justice Officer, as well as the Commissioner for the Local Government Service Commission, over financial infractions, would now turn around to cast aspersions on a government that, in eight years, had no record of stealing, looting, or misappropriation. This hypocrisy speaks volumes about the kind of jesters within the Okpebholo administration.
*Edo State Debt Profile*
Unfortunately for Okpebholo and Itua, they clearly lack institutional memory. They are either deliberately ignorant or genuinely uninformed about the State’s debt profile. Ninety percent of the debt Itua referenced was incurred during Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s administration in dollars. Every well-informed Nigerian remembers the three-tranche loan from a multilateral financial institution, each worth $75 million, which even sparked a dispute between Oshiomhole and the then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who had refused to approve the release of one of the tranches of the $75 million because she suspected that Oshiomhole might be preparing to use the funds to prosecute a coming election. This drew ferocious attacks from Oshiomhole against the then-minister. See article titled, “Oshiomhole attacks Okonjo-Iweala, says Minister destroyed Nigerian economy,” published by Premium Times on, May 27, 2015.
This is the bulk of the debt, which they have now converted to naira, which Itua ignorantly referred to in his statement. When Oshiomhole secured the loan, the exchange rate at the time stood at approximately ₦180 per dollar. It is through the 8-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari and the sudden devaluation and free float of the naira, under the current federal government, that this debt, taken by Oshiomhole, has now increased by over 1000 percent to the figure that is now brandished by the witch-hunt Asset Verification Committee.
Since Itua is clearly ignorant about the State’s financial history, he should consult the current Accountant General of the State, Julius Anelu, a fine and professional accountant, who also served as Accountant General under Obaseki, for clarity on these figures.
It is also highly irresponsible of Itua and Okpebholo to claim that these debts which were incurred and expended before the tenure of Obaseki, was somehow ‘pocketed’ by the Obaseki government.
*Radisson Hotel Project*
Okpebholo also displayed his ignorance, through his Chief Press Secretary about the responsibility of government in organizing the economic environment to attract private sector investments. So, instead of hailing Obaseki for expertly bringing in huge investments like the Radisson Project into the State, they turned around to vilify him for it.
For emphasis on the Radisson Hotel Project, at the time, Edo State had only one branded hotel, Protea, and because of the increased economic activities in the State, driven by the developmental strides of the Obaseki-led government across all sectors, there was a growing demand for more branded hotels to accommodate visitors in the State. This made the Radisson Hotel Project quite essential.
The project was conceptualized and kicked off in 2022, but in 2023 when the naira was devalued by the current administration, in May, when they took office, the cost of delivering the project escalated. Obaseki therefore deployed deft financial engineering skills to ensure delivery of the project despite the fact that the cost had increased by more than three folds and in the process, bringing in private investors to take over the government’s N17bn of the 19bn exposure in the project and still bequeathing 20 percent equity of the business to the State.
To put it quite simply, for just N2bn, Edo State now owns 20 percent of a 178-room five-star hotel project, whose value upon completion is estimated to be around N63bn.
Bear in mind that in the process of this investment, the government had achieved its purpose of attracting that huge business into the State, which will lead to more employment for the people as well as revenue inflow for the government. What financial engineering could be more ingenious than that?
*Stella Obasanjo Hospital*
For the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, which Itua had desperately whined about its consultancy fees, Itua and Okpebholo again do not take into cognizance the devastating effect of the devaluation of the naira and as well as the fact that the scope of the project was also increased. Any service, even if it is the supervision of a world-class infrastructure, is indirectly dollar-denominated. For example, an air ticket from Lagos to Benin or Abuja to Benin in 2022 when some of these projects kicked was about N30,000. But through 2023, 2024, and 2025, the cost has now gone up to as high as N150,000. These and other nontangible factors will clearly affect the cost of the project.
*EdoBEST*
Their baseless ranting about the education sector and the EdoBEST programme are mere attempts to discredit the impact and success recorded by the Obaseki government in education. They know they can never match his achievements, so they are trying frantically to tarnish them.
Okpebholo and Itua must understand that making egregious accusations of financial embezzlement is not enough, the onus is on them to prove it. They are in government now; they have access to all government apparatus, bank accounts, and memos (which are digital and available on the e-Gov system). So why have they been unable to provide a single piece of evidence of their allegation?
We urge the public to disregard these deliberate attempts to defame and malign Obaseki.
It is also obvious that Okpebholo and Itua are clueless about the rigorous administrative processes and transparency required to obtain and spend funds from the World Bank. Their frustration stems from the false expectation that they would find World Bank cash sitting in government accounts, which didn’t happen. We understand their frustrations but will like to enlighten them that high-profile multilateral organizations like the World Bank do not simply hand over cash to any government to spend arbitrarily; they co-execute projects and ensure that funds assigned are used to execute and deliver the projects.
*Central Hospital*
Additionally, the clueless Okpebholo government continues to talk about the Central Hospital, which was utterly dysfunctional, a facility that even the governor and his ilk would not dare take anybody remotely related to them to for medical care, whose space has now been transformed into a world-class museum, which was cited by the New York Times as one of the top 50 places to visit in the world in 2025.
For the healthcare system, does the massive investment which was made at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, which is a few kilometres away from the former Central Hospital location, not serve the purpose that the once derelict Central Hospital once served? Also, right next to the old Central Hospital is the Edo Specialist Hospital. This clearly shows that their arguments are not based on reason but on misguided sentiments.
*Edo Line*
It is most laughable to see Okpebholo and his government attempt to blame the liquidation of the Edo Line, which happened during the Oshiomhole administration, on the Obaseki government. This statement further exposes Okpebholo’s ignorance about statecraft.
*Okpebholo’s corrupt government*
Okpebholo, despite being in office for less than 90 days, already has cases of financial mismanagement and corruption piling up at the EFCC. A prime example is the recent suspension of the two executive council members earlier mentioned.
We have it on good authority that after every EXCO meeting, which happens once a week, each attendee is handed a whooping allowance of one million naira, which means if they have four EXCO meetings for a month, every council member would have pocketed four million naira for that month.
How much more reckless can a government be with the people’s resources?
Today, Edo is a traumatized State. Okpebholo and Itua must not be deluded with contrary opinions. The people are eagerly awaiting the judiciary to correct the wrong that was done on September 21, 2024, and remove them from office, so that Edo people can once again, heave a sigh of relief and continue on the path of prosperity and progress they manifestly enjoyed under the Obaseki administration.
***Crusoe Osagie,
Media Adviser to His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki,
Governor Edo State (2016-2024)
A I
Feb. 8, 2025
Tags: Crusoe Osagie Fred Itua Senator Monday Okpebholo
