The Chairman of the Edo State Assets Verification Committee, Dr. Ernest Afolabi-Umakhihe, alleged on Thursday that the immediate past administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki, left N200bn debt in contractual obligations behind.
Afolabi-Umakhihe said the committee found that many contractors had been paid mobilisation fees, but in some instances, these funds were reportedly returned to government officials.
But Obaseki’s media aide, Crusoe Osagie, described the allegation as baseless and a desperate attempt to disparage and rewrite Obaseki’s sterling legacy.
“The Edo State Governor-select, Monday Okpebholo, and his handlers have continued to display a glaring ignorance and poor understanding of basic concepts in economics, governance, and administration, and have now resorted to making outlandish and baseless allegations about a supposed N200bn debt to contractors in a desperate attempt to disparage and rewrite the sterling legacy of the immediate past governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
“The Okpebholo-led government must stop whining and get on with the task of governance. Although I cannot confirm the exact figures mentioned by the billionaire former Federal government Permanent Secretary, Dr. Ernest Afolabi-Umakhihe, I am aware that the Obaseki-led government had a lot of projects going on simultaneously and we had what we called the Irrevocable Standing Payment Order, which allowed the contractors to carry on executing their projects with the assurance of monthly instalmental payments already guaranteed by the government,” Osagie said in a statement on Thursday.
During a press conference in Benin, the chairman of the Edo asset recovery panel, Afolabi-Umakhihe, said the Obaseki government left behind N200bn in contract debt.
“Most of the ongoing projects were awarded during the year 2024, leaving the new government with a huge burden of about N200bn in outstanding commitments to contractors, who were only given mobilisation, which in some cases was paid back to government officials,” Afolabi-Umakhihe explained. “This has slowed down the pace of work.”
He also urged Governor Okpehbolo to act quickly to sustain ongoing road projects and use the dry season as an opportunity to ensure the completion of key works.
He noted that the committee had observed poor supervision by relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, with some road projects not properly documented within the Ministry of Roads and Bridges (now Ministry of Works).
Furthermore, Afolabi-Umakhihe criticised the administration’s lack of adherence to the Edo State Public Procurement Law in the awarding of major contracts, which led to dubious variations of contract sums. In some cases, these variations exceeded the initial contract amounts.
