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Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the 21 September governorship election in Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has advised the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo to withdraw from the race over alleged failure of the outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration.
Okpebholo stated this on Tuesday in Benin, at a meeting with the Edo State chapter of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).
According to him, the PDP governorship candidate’s roles as Economic Adviser to the Godwin Obaseki-led government, plunged the state into huge debt, for which he has no moral right to aspire to be governor.
He said: “A sad story of the outgoing government is that the man that has failed Edo state is bringing somebody who was his economic adviser.
“I told myself that if I was Barrister Asue Ighodalo, I will not bother myself to contest the governorship election because a government that I am its economic adviser has failed.
“Where I came from, which is Esanland, we were taught moral, and anything that is bad or spoilt we don’t eat.”
The APC governorship candidate noted that the debt profile of the state rose to over ₦573 billion from the inherited ₦43 billion from the last administration.
This is even as he bemoan what he described as unprecedented rate of stealing in the Obaseki-led government.
He, therefore, advised Edo people not to allow the stealing to continue with Obaseki’s third-term agenda through Ighodalo.
“In Edo State, do you know the debt profile of the state at the moment is over ₦573 billion. That is what Edo State is owing now.
“During Adams Oshiomhole period, monthly allocation from the Federation Account was between ₦3.1 billion and ₦3.3 billion. But today, the allocation is over ₦11.1 billion and nothing to show for it.
“This outgoing government which Asue Ighodalo was the chief Economic Adviser only inherited about ₦43 billion debt from Adams Oshiomhole, Lucky Igbinedion and Prof Oserhiemen Osunbor governments.
“When Oshiomhole was receiving between ₦3.1 billion and ₦3.3 billion work was going on in the state but with over ₦11 billion, Governor Obaseki has nothing to show for it,” he added.
