• The administration of the immediate past Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki left over N682 billion debt for Governor Monday Okpebholo.
• Obaseki inherited N84billion liabilities from the previous government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2016. The state’s debt profile now is 900% higher than what he inherited from Oshiomhole’s administration.
• Also, of a $75million World Bank fund for the primary education in the state under the Edo BEST programme, only $5m came directly to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
• About 93% of the remaining $70million was directly managed by the Office of the Governor under an arrangement referred to as Performance for Result.
These findings were in the report of the Edo State Assets Verification Committee , which was inaugurated on November 26, 2024 and chaired by Dr. Afolabi Ernest Umakhike.
Umakhike with 16 other members have submitted the committee’s final report to Governor Okpebholo.
It alleged that Obaseki’s government had no financial discipline.
The committe said the previous government handed over debt amounting to N682,565,164,814.55.
The committee observed that Obaseki’s government hurriedly embarked on a last-minute recruitment of over 4,000 teachers in November 2024.
The committee also found out that while Edo State collected $75million for basic education reforms, most schools in the state lacked teachers and basic infrastructure such as water, toilets. It said it discovered that no school feeding programme took place in the state.
The report said: “That the previous government handed over a whopping liability (debt) amounting to Six Hundred and Eighty-Two Billion, Five Hundred and Sixty-Five Million, One Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fourteen Naira, Fifty-Five Kobo (N682, 565, 164,814. 55).
“This is 900% higher than what he inherited from the previous government headed by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole put at N84billion in 2016.
This is outrageous and shows a lack of financial discipline by the Obaseki-led administration.”
On the education project, the committee stated: “On Edo BEST programme sponsored by the World Bank, the committee found out that of the $75million meant for basic education reforms and renovation of schools from the World Bank, only $5m came directly to SUBEB, the commission charged with the responsibility of implementation, while the remaining 93% of $70m was directly managed by the Governor under an arrangement referred to as Performance for Result.
“The SUBEB staff complained that out of the $5million allocated to them only $2.5million was accessed before the project came to a close.
“The state didn’t derive value from this project as the priority of the people of the state was how to fill the school infrastructure gap, teacher recruitment, security of pupils and hygiene, while a whopping sum of $75million was purportedly expended on procurement of tablets.”
The committee faulted some expenditures like over N22 billion on ICT for E-GOV; N967 million on supervision (consultancy) for Stella Obasanjo Hospital; and the N19 billion raised from the capital market for a hotel.
It said: “On Information and Communication Technology (ICT), it was noted that the past government awarded a total of 22 contracts totalling N22billion on ICT-related activities within the last few years of the government to 18 different companies and over N17billion had been paid as at November 2024, most of these contracts were either for the deployment of E-GOV platform or data centre construction.
“The committee frowns at non-state actors controlling the back end of the E-Gov platform while the state expends billions on consultancy services.
Further forensic investigation has been advised.
“The people of Edo State didn’t derive value for money from these ICT jobs and they appeared shady.
“On Stella Obasanjo Hospital project consultancy, the erstwhile government awarded the supervision (Consultancy) of the Stella Obasanjo hospital project to a company at the original sum of N427m in December 2022, eight months later on the 2nd of August 2023, the contract was increased by N300m to N727million and 10 months later on the 3rd of July 2024 few weeks to the election the same job was increased by N200million totalling the sum of N967million – almost one billion naira for supervision of the renovation of the hospital.
“Committee notes that this assignment is not the main construction itself or even the purchase of equipment.
The curious part of this job is that for an amount of such magnitude, the procurement process was selective tendering method and restricted to only one company and never advertised for the general public to participate.”
On a hotel, the committee found that while “Edo State has committed over N19billion (N2billion for land purchase and N17billion raised from the capital market) of its own funds to the construction of the hotel including purchase of the original property, the erstwhile government under Godwin Obaseki ceded away 80% of the ownership of the hotel to a strange company registered in 2024 while Edo retained 20%.
“Available documents tendered by the Ministry of Finance showed that at the time the agreement was reached, the said company had not committed one kobo to the hotel project.
“Assuming but not conceding that the company purportedly paid the sum of N10billion into an escrow account towards the end of that government, the ratio of ownership of the hotel will still be in the range of 70% in favour of Edo State and against 30%.”
On Edo Investment in Edo Modular Refinery Company, the committee stated that it found that Edo State government approved and transferred the sum of N700 million to a private company to assist in the establishment of the Modular Refinery in Ologbo.
The committee said: “The company returned the money after some years to the government without converting it to equity as expected.
The committee is curious as to what sort of partnership it is. Secondly, the money which was ordinarily sourced from EDSOPADEC has not been returned to the accounts of the commission to date; rather, it was curiously diverted elsewhere.
The Commission pleaded with the committee to assist in retrieving their funds back to their accounts.”
Among other findings, there were incidences of vehicle suppliers being paid 100 per cent for the supply of armoured vehicles but not supplied to the government and incidences of eloping with government vehicles. “These infractions have been recommended for criminal prosecution by relevant agencies”, the committee added.
It also observed that there were variations of contracts from 50 per cent and above, which were a deviation from the procurement law that stipulates not more than 25 per cent for a project, which must be justified.
“Following the discovery, the committee recommended forensic analysis and investigation on ownership of companies, enterprises, and properties in Abuja, Lagos and other locations where Edo State had prior interest before Godwin Obaseki’s tenure.
“Other recommendations are; prosecution of indicated ex -officials, blacklisting of indicted companies and full prosecution of contractors that ran foul of the laws of the state, termination of shady contracts, MoUs and other controversial arrangements by the erstwhile Government.
“The committee also demands a full investigation of the Edo BEST programme, particularly the utilization of the $75m from the World Bank,” it said.
The Nation