The previous administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki is alleged to have left a contractual debt burden of roughly ₦200 billion, primarily from promises to contractors who were only handed mobilisation fees.
This statement was made during a news conference by Ernest Umakhikhe, Chairman of the Assets Verification Committee, which was recently formed by Governor Monday Okpebholo to investigate the activities of the Godwin Obaseki-led administration.
“There are significant outstanding commitments in terms of road infrastructure.” Regardless of how immoral some of our findings are, the government must investigate the dry season to make a significant intervention in road development,” he said.
“Most of the ongoing projects were awarded during the year 2024 and that leaves the new government with a huge burden amounting to about ₦200 billion being outstanding commitments to contractors who were only given mobilisation which in some cases were paid back to government officials as disclosed by some contractors.”
Umakhihe, who stated that this was part of the committee’s findings, added that the Okpebholo government would need to make decisions to guarantee that the dry season period is used to work towards the construction of good road networks in the state.
“The transaction for the Radisson Hotel project has a lot to be desired. The State Government funded the project with over ₦17.5 billion from the stock market and an initial payment of ₦2 billion for land acquisition. However, ownership changed shortly before the exit of the previous administration, leaving Edo State as the primary investor with 20% ownership.
“The Museum of West Africa Arts-MOWAA is established as an autonomous private trust on government land. The initiative is under minimum oversight from the Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Tourism. Edo state has no ownership stake in MOWAA, despite contributing N3.8 billion.
“EDSG has committed to paying more than N5 billion for a cyber security software licence for the EdoGov platform for just three years, from 2023 to 2025. The previous government paid ₦1.7 billion of this total. These are only a few pieces of what we have discovered.
“By January 6, 2025, when we return, we will be looking at other critical sectors of the State; the housing sector, education (SUBEB and EDOBEST), Ministry of Environment, College of Health Sciences and Technology, College of Nursing Sciences, Ministry of Health, all Agricultural projects including grants from donor agencies, Edo Oil Palm Project, EDSOGPADEC, MOWAA, Edo Electrification Agency, sale of shares in BUA Cement, the Modular Refinery among others.”
