Hon. Charles Idahosa, a former member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one-time ally of Governor Godwin Obaseki, criticized the recent commissioning of the State Secretariat building along Sapele Road in Benin City.
The ceremony, led by former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, took place on Wednesday.
Idahosa pointed out that the building was not a new project, as it was originally constructed and inaugurated in 1973 by Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, the then governor of the Midwest and later Bendel State. He expressed disappointment that Governor Obaseki chose to highlight this decades-old building instead of new developments.
Additionally, Idahosa criticized Governor Obaseki for a lack of transparency regarding the costs and details of projects under his administration.
“How can Governor Godwin Obaseki says he is commissioning a new Secretariat? The Secretariat was built and commissioned by Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia as military governor of Bendel State in 1973. There was a time part of it was gutted by fire and it was rebuilt.
“It is a shame that he brought former President Goodluck to come and commission a project that has already been commissioned about 50 years ago. I am shocked that they have allowed him to get away with everything he is doing because he is governor, we have former governors here, we have former national chairman of parties here and they just allow him to get away with whatever he is doing. Is this how things are done?
“There is one strange thing he also did, look Wike and other governors, when he was governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, before a project is commissioned, you see the commissioner in charge of the project who will talk about the project and all that was done, you will see the contractor who will talk about the project but in this case of Obaseki, there is nothing like that, nobody knows the cost of the project, nobody knows the contractor, nobody knows the kind of work they did.
“But the truth of the matter is that there is no new project that Obaseki brought the former president to come and commission. It is unfortunate that this is the level Edo State has degenerated to and nobody is talking or calling the governor to order”, Idahosa lamented.
He also condemned celebration regular payment of workers salaries by the state government.
“I am shocked that the governor’s payment of salary of employees is now a news story that should be reported. Is it not his responsibility to pay the salaries of civil servants working in the state, when has payment of the salary of civil servants become an achievement? Who is supposed to pay their salaries? It is quite unfortunate”, Idahosa said.
