The New Experience Newspapers Online News Indepth, Analysis and More
The simmering political crisis in Edo State may have assumed another dimension as Governor Godwin Obaseki said it has become imperative to probe the Benin Specialist Hospital built by former Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Obaseki stressed that it has become imperative for Edo people to know the true state of affairs at the facility and how much taxpayers money the Oshiomhole administration spent on the hospital project that was commissioned by President Mohammadu Buhari in November 2016.
Speaking with journalists in Benin City, the governor said, “We have opened that hospital and we have consultants working there. So much has been said about the hospital and I am beginning to see many things that I don’t understand. Oshiomhole did a video that went viral.
“It is only fair for Edo taxpayers to understand what happened and why they decided to build the hospital. How much was spent to build it and its state today.
“I cannot be held liable for something I didn’t do. I want to esure that at the end of my tenure, I can explain everything I did and everything that happened.”
After several protests by youths over failure to open the facility for use, the Obaseki-led government opened the hospital last year, but operated it through a consultancy firm.
Consequently, Governor Obaseki constituted a commission of inquiry headed by Justice J.U. Oyomire (rtd.) to do a detailed inquiry of the process that led to the hospital’s conceptualisation, design, building and equipping.
Other members of the panel are, Professor Emmanuel E. Obaseiki-Ebor, Mrs. Elizabeth Uwaifo, Enemaku Hilary Igemoh, while Anthony Izevbekhale will serve as secretary.
It would also determine if there were breaches of the Edo State Procurement Law and other extant laws and procedures, even as Obaseki who had indicted Oshiomhole, said the former governor was masterminding the lingering crisis in the Edo All Progressives Congress (APC).
He restated that the National Chairman of the APC has been suspended in his ward and no longer has any legitimate business to act in that capacity.
“It is a party matter. We have a party chairman who has been suspended in his ward and so he has no legitimate business to act in that capacity. We will not accept any decisions from him.
“I have the 18 council chairmen of the party behind me. The entire party structure in Edo is one. They are behind President Muhammadu Buhari and me as governor,” Obaseki said.
