Mr. Godwin Obaseki, winner of the September 28 governorship election, has been sworn-in as the Governor of Edo State.
Obaseki took oath of office at about 12:45pm administered by the Chief Judge of Edo State, Justice Cromwell Idahosa.
He was accompanied by his wife, Betsy.
Earlier, Philip Shaibu was sworn-in as the Deputy Governor of the state.
Former Governor Adams Oshiomhole personally drove his Jeep into the Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia stadium, venue of the even.
…Pardons impersonators
Outgoing Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole Friday marked his last days in office by commuting four death row inmates to life imprisonment.
The inmates whose names were not made available as at press time had served over 25 years waiting for the hangman.
Oshiomhole disclosed this at a thanksgiving mass in response to call by the Archbishop of Benin Diocese, Obiora Akubeze, on Oshiomhole to forgive those that offended him.
Oshiomhole said he believed the four inmates have suffered enough but they need to remain in prison to know that murder is not fun.
He said he acted in line with the advice of the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy.
Governor Oshiomhole also granted pardon to two persons, a boy and a girl who impersonated the governor and his wife, Iara, on facebook in 2011
Both of them were arrested and the boy was sentenced to seven years imprisonment after confessing to the crime while the trial of the girl is still on.
Oshiomhole said he has ordered the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Henry Idahagbon to sign the necessary documents and get the boy released from prison.
He promised to send both of them back to school and make them become better citizens.
Governor Oshiomhole however refused to forgive the now deposed Onojie of Uromi, HRH Anslem Eidenojie 11.
Oshiomhole said those seeking forgiveness must confess their sins and he would not allow a situation where the suspended Monarch asked his victim to apologize.
He said to forgive everyone is to compromise on corruption.
Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Wednesday commended his Lagos State counterpart, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode for his various interventions in the last 18 months of his administration, saying that it has greatly impacted on the State, especially in the area of traffic reduction.
Oshiomhole, who spoke at the closing ceremony of the 16th National Women Conference, organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO), commended the wife of the Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, particularly for sustaining COWLSO since its establishment, adding that the choice of the theme for this year’s Conference “Strong Family, Strong Nation’, was quite instructive.
Speaking on the specific challenges posed by modern lifestyle on the family where the parents would have to leave home early and come home late, Oshiomhole said Governor Ambode, with his strategic traffic management initiatives was to a very large extent addressing the challenges.
Oshiomhole said, “As I was coming to this place today, I noticed something that I think is worth celebrating because of its impact in helping family unity and family union. Why will you wake up at 5am or 4am just to be at work at 8am devoting all the time to traffic?
“The reason was because of the huge traffic challenges but when I received the invitation for today’s event and I was advised that it was 10am and I know my brother, Governor Ambode keeps to time, I said we have to get up early and I told my wife that we are going to spend about two hours from Ikeja Airport to get to Ikoyi, but I was very pleasantly surprised that coming from Ikeja to this place, it was like flying a first class aircraft from Alausa to the heart of Ikoyi.”
“When I got here, I was asking the Governor on how he did it and he shared with me the interventions put in place within months of his assumption of office that have helped to completely reorder the traffic in Lagos such that when we slow down to about 20km per hour, we noticed people asking what is causing this go slow but things have changed so much.”
He said the interventions of the Governor was not only reducing traffic and fuel consumption, but was also bringing back the good times of family bonding as travel time has reduced, hence husbands and wives don’t have excuse of traffic to get home late or leave very early.
Oshiomhole said over the years as Governor of Edo State, he has had cause to learn and borrow from the template Lagos was running, expressing optimism that his successor and Governor-elect, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, would be willing to borrow a leaf from the COWLSO Conference as well as the traffic management strategy of Lagos.
“We borrowed what is happening in Lagos to make the case for Godwin Obaseki in Edo that Nigeria must move away from a tradition in which you have to be a celebrated politician to become eligible to contest for a political office, and that what we need in times like this are skills and people with managerial acumen and competence and we readily referred to Lagos as an example of what works with a seasoned and indisputable leader like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu laying the foundation, dreaming big, dreaming clearly and setting the vision and identifying capable young men and women to translate those vision in a manner that is unprecedented in the history of our country,” Oshiomhole said.
He added that with the achievements of Governor Ambode, so far, he (the Governor) has shown that the only poverty to address is the poverty of ideas, adding that once the brain is creative and imaginative with a Governor that is ready to apply himself, there is no problem that would defer solution.
“You have shown that our task as leaders is not to lament what does not work but to think through how to make it work and that you are doing; that you have done and I know that you will continue to do,” Oshiomhole said.
Earlier in her remarks, wife of the Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode said the three-day conference had opened the mind of participants to new ideas, information and statistics, saying that the women are better empowered to become change agents.
She explained that the success story of the conference could not have been without the excellent cooperation of the women who form COWLSO, just as she admonished them to put all what they were taught at the conference into use in their respective offices and homes.
The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole has said that it was a big privilege for him to present the staff of office to an Oba of Benin.
The governor made the statement when he addressed State House correspondents shortly after he paid a thank you visit to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Recall that the historic coronation of Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Ewuare II took place in Benin on Thursday with Nigerians and people of other cultures in attendance.
“On my part, I felt very privileged.
“In my eight years of stewardship in Edo State that assignment of having to hand over the staff of office to the Oba of Benin is the most singular important event that God has given me the privilege to preside,’’ Oshiomhole said.
He said that the first time in the 1930s when Oba Akenzua ascended the throne that same staff of office was presented by the Queen of England when the country was under British colonial rule.
He added that in a recent time, the other time the staff was handed to an Oba was in the 1980s through a military governor who was not an Edo indigene.
“This is the first time an Edo man, full-blood son of the soil, decked in Edo costume, presented the most important staff of office to the man we all celebrate as the Oba of Benin,’’ he said.
Oshiomhole said that the attendance to the event by the Sultan of Sokoto,Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and a host of other traditional rulers from across the country, was “extremely significant’’.
He said the Sultan was not only of Sokoto but the head of the Islamic Council in the country and was at the ceremony as the utmost religious leader in Nigeria.
“To have the Caliphate across the Niger, extending that hand of fellowship and brotherhood and bringing the Durbar from the Caliphate to Benin to celebrate the coronation of the Oba was historic.
“Those royal handshakes and bonds not only speak to history that had existed before the political amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria.
“It shows that our people, regardless of those interventions by the British authority, that the bonds have always been there and that even today those responsible for our tradition are doing their part to sustain those bonds.’’
He said this was so important at this time that the political class was preaching to primordial sentiments in a manner that threatened the country’s unity when they were frustrated.
“I think that royal handshake and bonding shows that at that level of leadership, Nigeria is one and we are committed to one and indivisible Nigeria and those royal fathers have led us by example,’’ he added.
The governor observed that one of the weaknesses of our country “`is that we don’t celebrate our tradition.
“What was unique was that the Oba observed all the cultural rites in the installation, including the most tedious of trekking certain distance to his palace.’’
He said that the exercise was to enable the monarch to place himself in the position of the common man in order to administer the domain well.
“Seeking for those traditions was extremely important because if you do not understand the pains the people under you go through you can’t have empathy and cannot do justice to them.’’
The governor commended the Bini people for behaving in a mature and orderly manner during the coronation of the Oba in spite of the large crowd.
He said the disposition of the Bini and the attendance of many from across the divide elevated Edo to an uncommon height adding that it could not have been better than that.
A former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, Friday, hailed the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole for giving the people of Edo a worthy successor.
Sylva, the Bayelsa State candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election in the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, congratulated the Governor-elect, Godwin Obaseki, and the people of Edo State on the victory of APC.
The former governor in a statement in Yenagoa signed by his Media Adviser, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, specially praised Oshiomhole for “a worthy cause to deliver a worthy successor to the people of Edo State.“
He said: “We send our congratulations to you, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on your victory at the poll. This feat has done our great party, APC, and the people of the South-South proud. It is a cheery reaffirmation of the place of the South-South in the national change movement.
“Special congratulations also go to the governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, for staying the course, despite visible adversity, in a worthy cause to deliver a worthy successor to the people of Edo State.
“You have given Edo people a worthy replacement who would not only continue your lofty ideals but would consistently push the envelope of social and economic progress for the greatest good of the people.
“We salute the entire people of Edo State, who are the ultimate winners of this election, as they prepare to enter yet another season of progress.
“We wish the people of Edo State, the governor, and the incoming governor a prosperous tenure.”
The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole and lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly on Wednesday clashed over resolution that lawmakers should hand over to Heads of Local Government Administration.
It will be recalled that the tenure of elected council officials will end on Thursday.
Governor Oshiomhole however described the resolution as inappropriate and unacceptable.
Oshiomhole in a letter read during plenary accused the lawmakers of usurping power of the executive.
The letter reads: “My attention has been drawn to the resolution of the house directives asking local government chairmen to hand over administration on April 21, 2016.
“The resolution is a usurpation of the powers of the executive. The house does not have the power to give such directives
“I have already directed the local government chairmen to submit their handing over the note and transmit such to the office of the governor.”
Lawmakers who spoke expressed disappointment with the content of the letter.
They stated they acted within the ambit of the law and the powers conferred on the assembly by section 4,6 and 7 of the 1999 constitution as amended and section 10 (1) of the local government law 2000 as amended.
Kabiru Adjoto, the member representing (APC Akoko-Edo) constituency, said the letter amounts to executive rascality.
Adjoto said the lawmakers derived their powers from the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Mr Speaker, I want to state clearly that the house has the powers to make laws for the state and any other matter not included in the exclusion list.
“We did not dissolve the councils, what we did was to remind them that their tenure expires on Thursday, April 21, 2016 and directed them to hand over administration to their various heads of local government as there can be no vacuum in government.
“I want to move that the Attorney General and commissioner for Justice, Henry Idahagbon be invited to explain why he has misinformed the governor on constitutional matters,” Adjoto said.
Speaker Victor Edoror said the house resolution directing the council chairmen to hand over administration to their HOS at the expiration of their tenure stands.
Edoror also summoned the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to appear before the house on Tuesday, April 26.