Re: Edo took $75m loan because PDP looted treasury. (…statement of a drowning Politian)

I was quite shocked to read statements credited to the Comrade Governor on why he sought and took an additional loan of $75m from the World Bank even though he has not accounted for how he spent the first tranche and all other loans he has prodigally requested for and squandered.

Governor Oshiomhole

By the time the Prodigal governor Adams Oshiomhole took over government in November 2008, the debt profile of the state was less than N5b but today from the world bank, capital market, and other financial institutions, the state is said to be indebted to well over N250b. “…he should be ashamed to talk about Edo State debt because he has mortgaged the future of our state…” Chief Dan Orbih added.

The Governor’s statement was crude, uncivilized, lacked focus, full of falsehood and empty on substance and facts. At this junction, it is pertinent we let the Prodigal Governor realize that we are proud of our chairman, Chief

Dan Osi Orbih, who attended and graduated with honors from the prestigious University of Benin. And does not possess a dubious secondary model school certificate!

We have substantially informed Edo people on the Governor’s shenanigans especially on his financial recklessness, fund misappropriation and garrulousness and as such, we won’t dwell on it. However, you will notice that in his 15

minutes of verbal diarrhea, the governor made all sort of wild allegations against the last PDP federal government. He did not present one shred of evidence to back his hate campaign, falsehood and use of language not befitting of an elected official of state but dwelled on beer parlor gist and rumors to justify why he needed to borrow more money. “The allegations are nothing but unrealistic expression of sentiment by a drowning politician. No matter the level of noise Adams Oshiomhole has decided to make, the reality is that at the last election

the people of the state rejected him and APC”

As a party, Edo PDP has never said we are against the loan, our problem is with the manager, Governor Adams Oshiomhole who cannot be trusted with Edo state funds and resources as he is reckless and unaccountable.

All through his tirade against the last PDP federal government, he did not explain or account for the N712b his administration has received in the last six and half years. He kept mute on why, even though he claims that EDSG

invested in the Azura Power Plant project and listed as one of the project on the N25b loan sourced from the capital market, Edo state is never mentioned as an investor or shareholder in any prospectus especially the one International Finance Corporation, IFC, used to mobilize $212.5m for the project. IFC confirmed that the project is been developed by a consortium of investors led by Amaya capital limited. The other shareholders and investors are America Capital Energy and Infrastructure, the Africa infrastructural investment fund, Al-diyah international ltd, Pan African infrastructure development fund, and the Assisted Resource Management Company Limited. In the new spirit of change and transparency the comrade governor should come out and tell us if he invested on our behalf or on his behalf!

On the issue of the central hospital, with the initial contract awarded to an Italian company, SCI Limited, for the sum of N2.7billion before it was reviewed upwards to over N3billion when the Comrade Governor demanded for an extra floor, a process that made a large part of the construction, within the premises of the Central Hospital, Benin City, to collapse on June 4, 2012. Many workers were injured with a lone casualty, Dr Stefano De La Roca, the owner of SCI and confidant of Adams Oshiomhole.

What many did not know at the period was that Dr De La Roca’s SCI was also the contractor handling Oshiomhole’s multi-billion naira sprawling palatial complex at Iyamho, Etsako West Local Government Area. This country home of a kind, referred to as Mobutu Sese Seko Ranch, so named after the late brutal dictator of former Zaire, is complete with a 18-hole golf course; swimming pools and jacuzzi; kebab/suya grottos; mini-zoo with exotic animals/birds’ sanctuaries; football/basketball court and an underground discotheque, amphi theatre, man made lakes and caves. Etc! When the lid was lifted off the super-secret construction and the mind-boggling photos of the architectural wonder that will pass for a modern Acropolis, Gov Oshiomhole deployed all the machineries and weight of state propaganda to deny any knowledge or ownership of the estate in Iyamho even when the explicit and graphic satellite images of the complex went viral on both the social and orthodox media. The umbilical cord or nexus between the medical complex projects in Benin City and the eye-popping Mobutu Sese Seko country home project of the Comrade Governor as far more than a coincidence that SCI was the main contractor at both sites, most, if not all, of the construction materials and workers shared a common pool. As we speak, the ranch is fully functional and has even hosted a wedding, but the hospital is still a work in progress. Total contract sum and date of completion is known only to governor Adams.

The question we continue to ask is would Edo state have needed to borrow N14.7b ($75m) if Governor Adams had not “taken” N42b in the last six years under the lame heading “urgent security challenges” akin to what the legend Fela referred to as “Authority Stealing”! There is nowhere any man can justify taking that amount of money (N500m –N700m monthly) in a state where there is no Boko Haram, where the only security issues that have been reported since he assumed authority are a few missing cars that have since been recovered.

The governor once again like the busy body he is, tried to impugn on the integrity of Dr Okonjo-Iwela using the China Eximbank loan as a launch pad even though the former Minister explained thus: “The alleged diversion has no substance, for the simplereason that the Kano-Lagos project was not even among the projects presented for funding by the China EXIMBank for several strategic infrastructural projects across the country,” “In fact, it was the

Lagos–Ibadan rail project, not Lagos-Kano rail project that was proposed in the original application to the China-EXIMBank. But in the end, no funds were assigned for the Lagos-Ibadan rail project by the China-EXIMBank,” the statement said.

The projects listed for funding with the China-EXIMBank loan, she explained, were at various stages of progress the expansion of four International Airport Terminals in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt ($500million); Abuja Light Rail ($500million); Zungeru Hydro-electric power project ($984million) and Galaxy Backbone project ($100million). “The procedure is that funds for approved loans remain in the China-EXIMBank and are released

directly to the Chinese firm executing the contract only after the presentation of duly certified proof of work by the responsible Ministry, in this case it would have been the Federal Ministry of Transport, based on the agreed milestones,” the statement said. “For the sake of emphasis, the China-EXIMBank does not disburse money

directly to government and therefore the issue of diversion does not arise.” She concluded.

Can governor Adams say same about the world bank loan he has hoodwinked the country to get? Or any other loan he has received since he became governor? We challenge him to list what he has done with the loans and allocation totaling almost N1tr he has received in the last six and half years!

Is it not bewildering that Gov Oshiomhole who is marinating and swimming in corrupt and corruptive practices under his watch and acquiescence as the governor of Edo State, is the one pointing fingers to others while he is the major domo of the cabal of exploiters that has cornered the commonwealth and collective patrimony of Edolites?

#Edo people have a story to tell

Chris O Nehikhare

Publicity Secretary

PDP Edo State

Re: Edo took $75m loan because PDP looted treasury. (…statement of a drowning Politian)