The Edo State Government yesterday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was way off the mark in its recent assessment of the first year in office of Governor Monday Okpebholo.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Fred Itua,said in Benin that comments by PDP chairman in the state Anthony Aziegbemi were nothing short of distortion and deliberate misrepresentation.
A former Secretary to the Edo State Government (SSG) Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu,also dismissed the PDP’s claims.
The APC chieftain described the first year in office of Okpebholo as one of truth,deliverance and restoration.
Aziegbemi had,during a press conference, claimed that Okpebholo’s first year was marked by drift, decline, policy paralysis and collapse of governance structures.
He also accused the Okpebholo’s administration of awarding contracts to people with complimentary cards, in the absence of a tenders’ board.
However,Itua in a statement, said PDP’s attempt to manufacture controversy “mirrors the broader strategy deployed by figures intent on defending the failures of the immediate-past administration, even when the facts are glaring.”
He said Aziegbemi’s comments on the Tender Board, in particular, “reveal a profound ignorance of procurement laws and administrative hierarchy.”
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His words: “For the avoidance of doubt, the Tender Board is a statutory body with clearly defined roles under Nigerian procurement regulations. It does not operate on the whims of political parties, nor is it subject to the emotional interpretations of party chairmen unfamiliar with governance procedures.
The insinuation that its operations under this administration are irregular is not only false but exposes the chairman’s unfamiliarity with due process and the limits of his own knowledge. For his education, every Ministry in Edo State has its own statutory Tenders Board composed of the Commissioner, Permanent Secretary, and Directors, all legally empowered to evaluate and approve contracts within their designated limits.
“Beyond this, the apex Tenders Board of the State is the Executive Council – made up of the Governor, Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government, and all Commissioners – which handles approvals that exceed ministerial thresholds. This is not new, ambiguous, or controversial; it is what is obtainable across the country.”
Itua said PDP’s attempt to ascribe to the Obaseki administration non-existent achievements could not fly.
“Edo people have not forgotten how a century-old, centrally located public health facility, the iconic Central Hospital, was demolished under the previous government,” he said.
He added:” That hospital served generations and stood as a symbol of accessible public healthcare. Yet it was willfully replaced with a private entity disguised as a cultural project, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
“It remains one of the clearest examples of governance gone wrong, where a public institution was sacrificed for a venture with no direct relevance to the healthcare needs of the people. Good governance prioritises citizens, not private legacies or commercial monuments built on public land.”
Ize-Iyamu in a separate statement said it is already evident to all that Edo is on a new path under Okpebholo.
He added:“In just one year, Governor Monday Okpebholo has brought back a climate of hope, order, accountability, and genuine development- development that citizens can see, feel, and benefit from. This stands in contrast to the previous pattern of grand announcements that delivered very little to the ordinary Edo person,” he said.
“For eight years, former Governor Obaseki left much of Edo State, including large parts of Edo South, his own senatorial district without the physical development the people desperately needed. Instead of real infrastructure, our state was treated to presentations, projections, and endless PowerPoints that produced no meaningful improvement on the ground.
“In contrast, within just one year, Governor Monday Okpebholo has begun addressing long-standing infrastructural failures that were ignored for nearly a decade.”
