Ahead of the 14-man probe committee’s inauguration, the Edo State Government has disclosed that about 500 vehicles procured for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) operations have been removed from the government pool of vehicles without any approval.
The government said that the vehicles were discovered to have been taken away by political appointees under the immediate administration of Godwin Obaseki.
The Governor Monday Okpebholo administration’s claims came hours after the committee to be inaugurated by the government had earlier said 200 vehicles were missing.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor, Fred Itua, who disclosed this on Monday during an interview with newsmen, said the figure is now higher.
Itua stated that the information was received from the committee led by Kelly Okungbowa.
He said: “So far, the committee set up to recover vehicles, as of this morning from findings that I made, they had recovered about 10 vehicles.
“From the conversation I had with the chairman of that committee, he said that the initial figure of 200 was understated that there are almost 500 vehicles that are still missing and as of yesterday, they had traced about 21 of those vehicles to the house of a very top appointee of the last government.”
According to him, some of the missing vehicles were also traced to a former official of the past government of Godwin Obaseki.
“Then, another – about 15 – traced to the house of another [top appointee of Obaseki’s government], and in the coming days, they intend to legitimately recover these vehicles and other assets belonging to the state so that is being held in private hands which ordinarily should not have happened.”
Itua said some officials of the Okpebholo administration do not have vehicles, adding that the current government inherited nothing from Obaseki.
The development is the latest in the Edo State government’s inquiry into the administration of Obaseki which handed over some weeks ago.
Obaseki is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Okpebholo belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and had defeated the former’s anointed candidate Asue Ighodalo in the September 21 governorship election.
The Edo Government recently set up a committee to probe Obaseki’s administration. It said the move was part of the governor’s “promise to ensure probity, accountability, and transparency in governance”.
But in the wake of the fractured relationship between successor and predecessor, Obaseki claimed that Okpebholo’s action was a smokescreen to shield his [governor’s] incompetence and lack of preparation for leadership.
Obaseki’s media aide Crusoe Osagie said, “we know what their plans are with the diversionary probes. It is just a smokescreen to mask the governor-select’s incompetence and unpreparedness for office, having come into power through a stolen mandate.
“We want to advise Okpebholo to focus on governance and improving the lives of Edo people rather than waste state resources masking his incompetence in meaningless probes.”
