By Francis Ogbuagu,Benin City
The Edo State APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, Col David Imuse Rtd. on Sunday called for the immediate resignation from the office of the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
In a statement, signed by the Chairman and made available to journalists in Benin City, Col Imuse said the call has become necessary because the Governor is failing in his duty of protecting the lives of Edo people, he has shown gross disregard for the rule of law and his interest is clashing with his official interest.
He listed among others, Governor Obaseki’s failure to uphold his oath of office to protect the lives and properties of Edo citizens, his penchant for disobeying court orders and his decision to plunge Edo state into more indebtedness with his recent clandestine borrowing of N25billion from the capital market as the reasons for his call.
The APC chairman said, “No one is safe in Edo. The state is under siege. We have a governor who has lost focus. Fear and insecurity have become the order of the day, yet the Governor takes N700million monthly as security vote. And so far he has not been able to deploy this huge amount to mobilise the security agencies in the state to fight criminality”.
Col Imuse added that today Edo state has a governor who does not have one iota of respect for the judicial and legislative arms of government or the rule of law although he regularly runs to the courts on the most frivolous of excuses.
He said, “A court recently ruled that the duly elected chairman of Etsako East Local Government Council who was illegally removed from office should go back to his seat. But the Governor, in disobedience of the Court, mobilised thugs to seal up the entrance of the Council Secretariat at Agenebode, denying the Chairman access”.
“Because Edo state is designed to be governed by relevant laws”, Col Imuse said, “Edo APC is ready to take the bull by the horns, as it can no longer condone a governor who has no regard for the rule of law”.
The Edo APC Chairman who also blamed Governor Obaseki for making Edo the third most indebted state in the country, wondered why he would clandestinely resort to borrowing the sum of N25billion from the capital market without telling Edo people, why and what it will be used for.
“This loan is unacceptable to Edo people and Governor Obaseki must urgently return it or cancel it outright because it is to be repaid by Edo taxpayers and to make matters worse, his own company, Afrinvest is the stockbroker for the facility. This action of the governor is not only illegal, there is a clash of interest”.
Meanwhile, Col Imuse has warned the many financial organizations that are being dragged into disbursing the controversial N25billion loan to tarry, because the loan will never be repaid, as he, however, cautioned those who are already euphoric over the money to stop as whatever they are doing is at their own risk.