By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The immediate past Publicity Secretary of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chris Nehikhare has refuted the claims in some quarters that the immediate past governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki is on the run.
He refuted the claim while introducing his successor, Barr. Dan Ogbegie to Journalists in Benin City.
Nehikhare said that the Obaseki is willing to appear when invited by any of the anti-graft agencies to answer any questions if any.
“Godwin Obaseki is a free man. If anybody wants, EFCC, ICPC, DPP, whatever it is, they can write to him and invite him or whatever they want to do.
“So, this talk by jobless people who are not who have this disease called the ODS It’s an obsessive disease whereby people, the government and APC cannot wake up in the morning without talking about Godwin with the former government. And those people are saying he has done his time. You do your time and do your own”.
He said those projects the present criticized that Obaseki didn’t complete to high level are what the present administration of Okpebholo is using as at today.
The immediate Publicity Secretary added that while Obaseki has not be so visible in the state is that he wanted to give the present governor the opportunity to prove his worth to the people of the state.
He also said that the past administration constructed 1300 km of roads across the state between 2016 and 2024.
On the part of the new Publicity Secretary of the party, Barr. Dan Ogbegie, he said the construction of the Benin flyover at the Ramat Park axis, Ikpoba Hill was not necessary instead roads in the Government Reservation Area (GRA) should have been fixed.
Mr. Ogbegie who said though he was expressing his personal opinion, said he based his reasons on the economical viability of the area.
According to him “I didn’t even address the issue of the fly over that the current government is doing.
“And I was wondering why? For me, get flyover is good but we are having very terrible roads right now. Inner roads, especially GRA. What do you do? Do you fix your bedroom first or you fix your sitting room first? It’s always about to fix the sitting room because the outsiders that are coming, they will see the sitting room first and it’s a good advert for you, for you to be able to have yourself or your home. For me, GRA roads are the keys that outsiders come into Edo state. And this GRA has about 90% of the big hotels in Benin City.
“So if you fix roads in GRA, it will have more economic impact on Edo state than in most other areas. That’s my personal opinion. Other people may have other opinions”.
He also blamed the present administration for abandoning its predecessor’s projects adding that, government is continuum.
“Today, how many of us can travel to Abuja on the road using Auchi road? Very rare. How many of us even have the funds to take flight from here to Abuja? Not many of us. But if government is able to revamp the security architecture of Edo state, then there will be relative security. Now, we as PDP are not even saying revamp the security architecture of Edo state.
We are saying, the security architecture that you met, why change it? You can take it, you can improve on it. Why did you discard it? The only one thing Monday Okpebholo has done as governor, he came in and he is dismantling all the structures of his predecessor because they are in different political parties.
“He doesn’t understand that government is a continuous process. Somebody was there before. You are there now. And you will leave. After the four years by the special grace of God, you will leave and somebody else will replace you.
“So, if everybody keeps bringing his own, holding his own all the time, without improving on or adopting what he meets, then we will never make progress as a people. So I want to call on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State to look at what he meant on ground and improve on them”, he said .
