Tag: Monday Okpebholo

The Transition Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo has recommended a probe into more than N410 billion local and foreign debts allegedly owed by the state.

The committee made the recommendation on Monday in its report presented to the governor-elect, Sen. Monday Okpebholo ahead of his inauguration on Tuesday as the fifth democratically elected governor of the state.

Presenting the document, Dr Pius Odubu, who is the Chairman of the committee, said the committee was presented with N410 billion debts as against the N55 billion inherited by the outgoing government in 2016.

“For those of you who have the capability to fact-check, you will find out that the indebtedness today is much more. It is over N500billion,”he said.

Odubu, who is an erstwhile deputy governor in the state, said the committee also recommended a review of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on the management of Central and Stella Obasanjo hospitals.

“All employment carried out in the recent past should be cancelled, while the governor should investigate the true ownership of the Ossiomo power plant and Raddisson Blu Hotel.

“The same with Museum of West Africa Arts-MOWAA. We deserve to know the state’s equity in these companies as the outgoing government went blank on these enquiries.

“We also demanded a comprehensive review of the world bank funded EdoBest programme and a probe should be instituted to uncover its rather opaque operations.

“All major contracts issued by the state government under the Ministry of Roads and Bridges should be reviewed as they appear not to have followed due process, including the payment advance awarded to the contractors.

“The procurement agency indicted the government in its own report to the Transition Committee; hence we have advised the incoming Governor to take a critical review,”he said.

The committee chairman also called for the streamlining of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem in the state, which he said appeared to be a duplication of duties.

“The outgoing government didn’t provide audited financial statements published or unpublished, hence the committee is advising government to institute an enquiry into this.

“The government couldn’t account for the number of teachers in the state; hence we demand a proper teacher headcount,”Odubu said.

The committee chairman said the document, made up of 24 page report and 800 annexures, was a product of three weeks of rigorous assignments, meetings, interactions, engagements and analyses of the documents presented to the committee.

“We are proud to present to Your Excellency, our report based on our findings after a careful examination and analyses of the official documents received from the outgoing government transition team.

“Your Excellency, it will interest you to know that the report being presented to you this afternoon was derived from our collective inputs during the several sessions we had as a team.

“We did not just carefully examine the five thematic pillars as presented by the government’s transition team, we took time to look at other information available to the committee through our interactions with relevant stakeholders in the state.

Responding, the governor-elect commended the committee members for doing a thorough job, saying the document would help the incoming government.

The Transition Committee of Edo Governor-Elect, Monday Okpebholo, has denied borrowing funds for the inauguration ceremony slated for Tuesday.

The outgoing Gov. Godwin Obaseki had accused the committee of borrowing N5 billion to organise the ceremony.

Obaseki’s administration also accused the governor-elect of not inviting him for the inauguration ceremony, sparking concerns about the transfer of power.

A statement by Kassim Afegbua, a member of the committee on Sunday in Benin, said the governor-elect had opted to fund the inauguration from his personal resources to avoid any unnecessary expenses.

Afegbua said the decision was made after the committee’s meeting with the Secretary to the State Government and a Permanent Secretary, who requested an inauguration budget.

Afegbua stated that they declined to present a budget to avoid potential accusations of misusing the funds.

Afegbua criticised Obaseki’s administration, alleging that Obaseki was frustrating the inauguration process and overburdening the new administration with last-minute decisions.

He said the governor-elect was committed to making life better for the average Edo person and did not believe in an ostentatious display of resources.

“Suddenly, Godwin Obaseki, realises the ephemerality of power and now resorts to lamentations about an ongoing inauguration without extending an invitation to him. We found this to be generously laughable and self-indicting.

“In other climes, an outgoing governor or president organises the inauguration of the incoming, but for the painful loss of the PDP at the election, Gov. Obaseki and his co-travellers are doing everything possible to frustrate the inauguration of the incoming governor.

“Rather than sit down to plan the inauguration event as it is done in other climes, Gov. Obaseki is busy planting landmines on the path to smooth transfer of power.

“From the transition committee to the inauguration committee, despite all the cooperation we have extended to them, what we have received in return is frustration and deliberate plot to overburden the new administration with all manner of misplaced government decisions.

“We totally frown at these dubious plots which are clear negations of the standard procedures of power transfer the world over,” he said.

Afegbua also said that most government vehicles had been carted away by government officials, leaving only one functional vehicle at the Edo Government House.

An Abuja High Court  on Friday, quashed a criminal summon issued on September 12 by a magistrates’ court against Sen. Monday Okpebholo over alleged certificate forgery.

Justice Charles Agbaza, in a judgment , also voided the entire proceedings before Magistrate Abubakar Mukhtar of a Wuse Magistrate Court in Abuja on grounds that the summon was issued in excess of his jurisdiction and error of law.

Justice Agbaza agreed with Okpebholo that the entire proceedings and the criminal summons were illegal, unconstitutional and in violation of his fundamental human right to fair hearing as guaranteed under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Okpebholo, who is the governor-elect in the Sept 21 Edo governorship election, had, through his counsel, Andrew Emwanta, dragged Mr Honesty Aginbatse amd Mukhtar before the court as 1st and 2nd respondents.

The development followed the criminal summons by Magistrate Mukhtar on Sept. 12, directing Okpebholo to.apoear in court on Sept. 20, the eve of the governorship poll in Edo, over an alleged false statement on his date of birth brought against him by Aginbatse, an Indigene of the state.

The Okpebholo, the APC candidate in the election, was ordered to appear before the court at 12 noon.

He was accused of claiming conflicting dates of birth in his nomination forms submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the election.

Against the backdrop, Emwanta filed an originating summons before the FCT High Court marked: CV/4589/2024, seeking an order of certiorari to bring into the court for the purpose of being quashed, the entire proceedings and criminal summons issued on Sept. 12 by Mukhtar at the instance of Aginbatse.

The lawyer, in motion dated and filed on Oct. 21, argued that the action was instituted to prevent Okpebholo from presenting himself as a candidate in the Sept. 21 poll and to disqualify him on false grounds.

He also sought a declaration that the entire proceedings and criminal summons was illegal, unconstitutional and in violation of his client’s fundamental human right to fair hearing guaranteed by the law.

He equally sought an order of prohibition, prohibiting the magistrate from further proceeding with the case number: CR/W22/816/2024 instigated by Aginbatse.

In the affidavit in support of the motion, Emwanta averred that Okpebholo “on March 31,2022, deposed to an affidavit to correct the mistake in his date of birth (written as Aug. 29, 1972 on his June 2008 WASSCE Certificate.

He also averred that Okpebholo on his permanent voters card had Aug. 1, 1977, as his date of birth instead of Aug. 29, 1970, which is his correct date of birth), before the Commissioner for Oaths in the Registry of this Honourable Court.”

He said Okpebholo also deposed to an Affidavit of Regularisation of Personal Particulars at the Supreme Court of Nigeria Registry on July 26, stating the facts and correcting the aforementioned mistake in his date of birth in both his WASSCE Certificate and Personal Voters Card (PVC) issued by INEC.

The lawyer said his client further made a declaration via a Deed of Regularisation of Personal Particulars and sworn to before the Commissioner for Oaths at the Supreme Court’s Registry on July 26, among other steps taken by the governor-elect.

Emwanta argued that the magistrate lacked jurisdiction to entertain such matter being a pre-election matter, under Section 29 of which the law confers jurisdiction on the Federal High Court.

But Aginbatse, in a 16-paragraph counter affidavit filed by his lawyer  Raymond Azinye, urged the court to dismiss the application.

On his part, Mukhtar, who was the 2nd respondent, neither filed any process nor represented in court.

Delivering his judgment , Justice Agbaza agreed with Emwanta that the magistrate ought to have considered the exhibits presented by Okpebholo before issuing such order.

He cited previous Supreme Court decision in Osita Nwosu and Imo State Environmental Protection Agency to back his ruling.

The judge, who also agreed with the lawyer on other grounds, barred the magistrate from further proceedings on the case.

He was, however, of the view that the magistrate had a discretion to fix a hearing date of a matter before him.