5 hours Ago By Chukwudi Akasike
Edo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Tony Aziegbemi, speaks to CHUKWUDI AKASIKE about issues affecting Edo State, including the presentation of the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the state House of Assembly by Governor Monday Okpebholo Is your party, the Peoples Democratic Party, ready to embrace the new task of a credible opposition in Edo State after Monday Okpebholo was declared winner and sworn in as the governor of the state, or has the PDP lost hope in the affairs of the Edo people after the last election in the state? I don’t think it is right to imagine that as big and as complex and sophisticated as the PDP is, it will lose hope in the Edo project. The people of Edo State and the Edo project are why the PDP exists. The PDP and Edo people are synonymous; they are like twins, and that is because of a long-time relationship between the people of the state and the party.
We can never lose hope in the Edo project. The welfare and the prosperity of the Edo people are paramount to us as a party. The four years of the Godwin Obaseki administration under the PDP give credence to that.
Those four years were the glorious years of Edo State. Therefore, we believe so much in the people of Edo State. We believe that the people know what is going on; they see everything, and there is no way we can lose hope.
But the APC does not believe that the immediate past administration of Obaseki did well. They are saying that contrary to the claim of performing excellently, the PDP-led administration did not do well. How will you reconcile these contrasting positions? There should be a philosophical profiling of APC members in Edo State.
They did something wrong, and instead of admitting it, they doubled down on it. It shows the content of the character of the members of the APC in Edo State. They don’t seem to understand that this is Edo State and not any other state.
So, some of us are looking at them. I can imagine how bad Edo people are feeling about this APC administration as we have it now in the state. But I can tell you for free that it is temporary; it will not last more than when the Supreme Court gives its final judgment on the governorship election.
The people of Edo State should be resilient and stay focused as the glory of Edo State will shine again once we retrieve our mandate; Edo State has been enveloped with darkness because there is nothing good that the APC can bring to Edo State, not with this calibre of people. There are claims in some quarters that the PDP in the state is no longer united after losing the governorship election. How true is this? I understand what you mean by the PDP is no longer united.
I speak with leaders and stakeholders of the party. That is not what I heard. People are more energised; people are more hopeful.
People have seen our petition, and they have read the responses from the APC, INEC, and the governor. We have also written our responses and people have seen it and they know that we have a powerful case. So, the issue of the PDP not being united does not arise.
Is it not unique that even after losing the election, how many defections have they had? I have not heard of any. We are as united as we can be in the circumstances. Of course, a few people will take this in its stride, a few people may take it not as strongly as some other people, but we are different.
Governor Monday Okpebholo made a gaffe while presenting the state 2025 Appropriation Bill, a development that drew reactions from Nigerians, including the people of the state. What is your view on this? I would rather focus on his (Governor Okpebholo) purpose of visiting the House of Assembly. It was to present the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the House of Assembly.
I have more fundamental issues with that presentation than the issue of not being able to read those figures. We should be looking at the big picture. Anybody can have a bad day, and maybe that was just a bad day for him.
We hope it doesn’t happen again. However, I want Nigerians and Edo people to look at the following issues. Look at those around him (governor); has he been able to put together a solid team that will make sure that whenever he is presenting anything, everything is in good shape, the fonts, the figures, and the words are there? If they have not, I will hold them responsible for that gaffe, and that means he has not been able to put together a strong team around him.
That is serious because that means we will continue to have this kind of gaffe in the future. Secondly, the budget was increased by 25 per cent. Unfortunately, we did not see the performance of the budget in 2024.
What was the percentage of performance? What was the cash backing? Which projects were done, and which ones were not done? When you increase a budget in this environment by 25 per cent, where are you looking to get those revenues to back up that increase? Two sources were not revealed to us. I believe that the budget was hurriedly put together; I think he didn’t participate in it, and I believe that those who did it were only doing copy and paste. We are in a very serious situation.
He (the governor) doesn’t seem to be in sync with those around him. He knows he cannot do this thing alone; he must have a strong team around him. People cannot just put something together for you and give it to you to go to the House of Assembly and read.
It has been one flop to another. He flags off a flyover from Ramat Park to wherever without any appropriation, no design, no tenders’ board, no executive council; who does that? Everything he (Governor Okpebholo) has done is to go to a facility built by Governor Obaseki, he sees a crack in the wall and says, ‘Oh, it is a substandard job’. You can see how mediocre these guys are.
If you try looking at what he has done, you will weep for the state. Some Nigerians have said that the gaffe at the Edo State House of Assembly is a sign of incompetence by the governor. Don’t you think that is too harsh on him? I don’t want to dwell on his inability to read those figures.
As I said, I blame those around him who failed to prepare him. But I am looking at the fundamental issue, which is the 25 per cent increase and where he intends to get money to fund it, not the mistake he made while presenting the budget. Maybe he didn’t sleep well; his APC people didn’t allow him to sleep.
It happens. He (Okpebholo) is saying agriculture is one of his priorities. Meanwhile, he allocated a meagre N4.
5bn to the sector. So, there seems to be no alignment with his thoughts, the budget proposal, and how it was presented. All this again speaks to the fact that the people surrounding the governor need to up their game for the few months they will occupy that seat.
Do you think Asue Ighodalo is infallible and would not have made a similar mistake in reading the Appropriation Bill? One thousand per cent, an Asue Ighodalo will never make such a mistake. Why do you say so? I say so because I know him, and I know the stuff he is made of. He will never make such a mistake because we have a strong team around him.
He would have gone through that budget proposal page to page, back-to-back. Related News Edo probes 100% hike in Benin-Abraka road contract cost LP, PDP berate INEC chair for sharing lessons from Ghana poll Edo: APC, PDP trade words as supporters clash at tribunal He would never have gone to that House of Assembly without making sure that they got all the figures right, and he would have told us the source of the increase in the Appropriation Bill, why he is increasing it, for what purpose, and where the revenues are going to come from. But the APC Chairman in Edo State, Jarrett Tenebe, said in a video that the immediate past governor, Obaseki, and the PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, would not have made such a mistake while presenting the Appropriation Bill because they had stolen billions (of naira) before.
How will you react to this claim? This is the point I have been making about the quality of people that the APC parades. People can make mistakes because we are humans but don’t insult the intelligence of the people who are more intelligent than you by saying he (Okpebholo) cannot read our budget proposal figures because he has not stolen billions of naira. For your information, Asue Ighodalo has written him (Tenebe) through a law firm, asking for a retraction within seven days or else be ready to face the court to prove how Asue Ighodalo has stolen billions of naira.
I also expect the former governor, Obaseki, to sue him. When they sue him and he is declared bankrupt, then people will learn how to talk in public. It is so pathetic and a no-brainer to say Obaseki and Ighodalo will not make mistakes in reading budget proposal figures because they have stolen billions of naira.
It just shows the quality of people that the APC parades in Edo State. It is so bad that I feel sorry for the Edo people for the next few months that these men will occupy that seat. But not to worry; Asue Ighodalo is coming, and we will make things right again.
How do you view the affairs of the state currently? As we speak, Edo State IGR is declining rapidly. Before Governor Obaseki left, it was in the region of N8bn every month. Now, we hear it is coming down to about N2bn.
This is because investors are not coming anymore. They are afraid because when the tigers and lions are harassing everybody; the tigers and lions are collecting tickets and revenues for the state. Non-state actors now take part in the collection of revenue.
What do you mean by tigers and lions are collecting tickets and revenues in Edo State? The tigers and lions have been unleashed on the streets of Benin City. When Obaseki was the governor, he told them the lions and tigers were always in the zoo. So, he caged them, and they didn’t come out.
But now that Okpebholo is there, he (Okpebholo) has brought them back from the zoo and they are on the prowl. Nigerians have always been told to pray for their leaders. Today, Governor Okpebholo is your leader.
With what you have said so far, will you pray for him to succeed? That’s a good question. It has a lot of philosophical angles to it. I want to ask you; if somebody gets to your house and steals your property, and you know the person that came to steal your property, will you pray for him? Okpebholo stole our mandate.
So, it will be out of place to pray for him after being a beneficiary of a stolen mandate. No! The PDP won by a landslide in the last local government election in Edo State. Surprisingly, the same PDP couldn’t win the governorship election in the state.
How do you reconcile these two events and their outcomes? We won in all the 18 local government areas of Edo State during the local government elections in 2023. We won all the 92 councillorship positions in Edo State during the council elections last year. We won in 12 local government areas in Edo State during the September 21st governorship election.
From our analysis of the Form EC8A which our agents gave to us, we were leading the APC with about 50,000 votes. That was about 8pm on the 21st. APC leaders were calling me and congratulating me until they started their style.
They started manipulating and moving collation centres from LGA collation centres to the INEC headquarters in Benin, and the results of at least five local government areas were changed. The matter is in court, and it is not right to speak about it now. You asked a question.
We did not lose the election; we won the election hands down. We won the governorship election in the same manner we won the local government election. The results declared by INEC are the correct results.
But local government elections in the country have always been criticised as a ruling party’s affair, where the State Independent Electoral Commissions do the bidding of the ruling party. Has that not been the pattern? There is a fundamental reason for that. Everything happens for a reason.
If you check, there must be something responsible for that. Now, in a local government election, the governor is seated in his office in the state, and he wants to conduct local government elections. He appoints members of the State Independent Electoral Commission; it is like his appointees, like commissioners or special advisers.
I think the idea is that most opposition parties do not normally up their games when it comes to local government elections. There was a year when the PDP boycotted local government elections in the state; that was when Adams Oshiomhole was the governor. It was because we knew we didn’t have a chance.
Most times, the opposition feels there is no need to beat a dead horse. So, the opposition wasn’t there. That time, before the governorship election, people believed in INEC, but under Yakubu Mahmood, the integrity of the commission has been greatly eroded, and INEC is fast becoming like a state electoral commission, where results are already written, and people already know who will win.
But it was the same Mahmood that was there in 2020 when Obaseki won. What do you think happened? Yes, Mahmood was there in 2020 when Obaseki won. He was there in 2016 when Obaseki won.
So, you have asked a good question. When you see him, ask him what happened. I think something has fundamentally happened in INEC.
There are many loopholes in that commission now. There were two result sheets of the same serial number everywhere. Where is that second result sheet coming from? This never happened in Edo State before; never! We used to hear that people have result sheets; we don’t do that in Edo State.
Under Mahmood, we thought that he had everything under control, but the result sheets were flying all over the place. How? Where did they come from? So, the standard has fallen under his watch. I hope he plugs those loopholes and gets back the confidence that the people ought to have in the commission.
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