Edo PDP supports Oshiomhole’s call on Buhari to be ruthless with looters

• Petitions President to begin with the former Edo governor
• Lists allegations of impropriety

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State has declared support for former Governor Adams Oshiomhole who told President Muhammadu Buhari to be ruthless with looters of Nigeria’s treasury.

The Edo PDP, however, demanded that in doing this, President Buhari should be ruthless to all looters irrespective of the party they belong.

The PDP decried that Edo people feel cheated that Adams Oshiomhole is not yet arraigned in court about two years he left office and have lost immunity.

Edo PDP alleged: “Oshiomhole “shamelessly defrauded the state and threw Edo into debt. Today, Edo is the third most indebted state in Nigeria. The state is far poorer than he met it and Adams Oshiomhole is far richer than he was at the time he assumed office.” The opposition PDP further alleged that “the Oshiomhole administration received well over N1 trillion from the Federation Account and borrowed over N300 billion even though he met a debt of only N4 billion on assumption of office in 2008.”

 “As governor, he used an average of N500 million as security vote for undisclosed unknown “urgent security challenges”, curiously, the same amount and same narrative monthly for 48 months,” the PDP alleged.

PDP in a statement in Benin City by Chris Osa Nehikhare, State Publicity Secretary, also alleged that Oshiomhole “acquired property all over Benin City, Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, United States of America and South Africa to justify his unbridled greed and insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement.”

The opposition party further purported that the former governor denied the legislature and judiciary financial independence while he spent state resources recklessly on extravagant lifestyle, chartered helicopters and private jets for his numerous trips to Iyamho and “wasted our money on unproductive foreign trips; awarded inflated contracts without due process. Built a private university with state resources at an inflated cost and forcefully acquired land to build for himself the much talked about Mobutu Seseseko style ranch in Iyamho valued at over N10 billion.”

The PDP alleged further that Adams as Governor built a ward in the already existing central hospital complex with about N15 billion, deceived President Buhari to come and commission it, noting that about two years after commissioning, the ward has been reduced to a den for reptiles and wild grass. “It is ironic that Adams Oshiomhole is not only freely walking the streets of Benin City, he is granting interviews and calling people looters!

This Adams Oshiomhole has probably forgotten how he used N10 million to renovate a toilet, an expenditure that made Edo PDP to mock him with the Fela song aptly titled Expensive shit,” the statement declared.

In seeming petition to the president, PDP listed long contents of alleged impropriety against Oshiomhole.

The seeming petition states as follows: As major stakeholders in our beloved Edo State, a state brimming with talented men and women of high integrity both old and young, we deem it fit and proper to draw attention to the spate of financial recklessness bordering on naked corruption allegedly perpetrated by public officers of Edo State Government in the last few years under the watch of the then Governor Adams Aliu Oshiomhole.

Construction activities in Edo State University with state funds without appropriation

Adams Oshiomhole embarked on reckless spending of meager state resources in the University of Science and Technology (now Edo University, Iyamho) without appropriation. On 23rd December 2015, just seven days to the end of the 2015 financial year, His government awarded contract to the tune of a whopping sum of 12,282,852,413.69 (Twelve Billion, Two Hundred and Eighty Two Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirteen Naira, Sixty Nine Kobo) to A & K Construction Limited for the construction of a teaching hospital in the university.

To demonstrate his desperation to access state funds for the project, he approved payment to the contractor in the sum of N3,070,713,103.42 (Three Billion, Seventy Million, Seven Hundred and Thirteen Thousand, One Hundred and Three Naira Forty Two Kobo).

On the same day, he approved an additional sum of N1,228,285,241.36 (One Billion Two Hundred and Twenty Eight Million, Two Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand, Two Hundred and Forty One Naira Thirty Six Kobo) to be paid to the contractor.

Total sum approved by him came to N4,298,998,344.78 (Four Billion Two Hundred and Ninety Eight Million, Nine Hundred and Ninety Eight Thousand, Three Hundred and Forty Four Naira, Seventy Eight Kobo).

We can confirm that all payments were made from state coffers even as there was no appropriation for the expenditure in the 2015 Appropriation Law or in the supplementary appropriation for that year.

It is noteworthy that whereas the first component of N3,070,713,103.42 paid to the contractor was not budgeted for in the 2015 State Budget, the second component of additional N1,228,285,241.36 was vired without the approval of the Edo State House of Assembly from the budget of N3.5 Billion for the construction of the new accident and emergency ward complex and renovation of existing structures in Central Hospital Benin City contained in the capital budget of the Ministry of Health in the 2015 budget. This is a clear violation of existing financial regulations and the appropriation law.

Further Violation

Earlier on 15th December 2015, contract in the sum of N2,505,582,486.38 (Two billion, Five Hundred and Five Million Five Hundred and Eighty Two Thousand Four Hundred and Eighty Six Naira Thirty Eight Kobo) was awarded to Sageto Limited for the construction of senate building at the Edo University, Iyamho, out of which the then Governor approved the sum of N626,395,621.60 (Six Hundred and Twenty Six Million Three Hundred and Ninety Five Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty One Naira Sixty Kobo) to be paid to the contractor on the same day.

 (2.) A memo approving the sum of 1,880,483,836.66 (one billion, eight hundred and eighty million, four hundred and eighty three thousand, eight hundred and thirty six Naira, sixty six kobo) for the construction of 168 room male student’ Hostel Complex at the University of Science and Technology, Uzairue as contract sum to A&K construction was considered and 470,120,959.165 was approved and paid as mobilization. NOTE the last three digits! They were in such a hurry that kobo is now in hundreds!

Curiously, on the same day the former Governor further approved payment of the sum of N245,825,133.77 (Two Hundred and Forty Five Million Eight Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand One Hundred and Thirty Three Thousand Seventy Seven Kobo) out of the contract sum of N983,300,535.07 (Nine Hundred and Eighty Three Million Three Hundred Thousand Five Hundred and Thirty Five Thousand Seven Kobo) to be paid to the same contractor for construction activity in the same university, this time for construction of faculty auditorium.

Total un-appropriated payment to the two contractors, A & K Construction Limited and Sageto Limited, came to N5,171,119,000.23 (Five billion One Hundred and Seventy One Million One Hundred and Nineteen Thousand Twenty Three Kobo).

More acts of Violation – Central Hospital Complex

On 14th January 2016, one month before the State Budget for 2016 was passed into law, Adams Oshiomhole approved payment of the sum of N1,408,841,507.78 (One Billion Four Hundred and Eight Million Eight Hundred and Forty One Thousand Five Hundred and Seven Naira Seventy Eight Kobo) being 75% mobilization fee or advance payment to Vamed Engineering Nigeria Limited for the supply, installation, training and maintenance of medical equipment for the accident and emergency ward as well as the ward complex at Central Hospital, Benin City. The sum is said to be part of the 2016 Budget of the State Ministry of Health even when no appropriation had been made for 2016 financial year.

Two acts of violation occurred here:

1) The 75% mobilization fee or advance payment paid is in gross violation of section 47 of the Edo State Public Procurement Agency Law 2012 which provides that only 25% advance payment be made to a supplier or contractor.

2) On a closer look, you will discover that the 2016 State Budget, on the basis of which the payment was made, was not in existence as at 14th of January, 2016. The State Budget was passed 16th February, 2016. The Constitution is clear that no anticipatory expenditure can be made on a budget that has not been passed into law. If the state government claims to rely on Section 122 of the 1999 Constitution which permits the Governor to authorize expenditure till 6 months into an appropriation year pending passing of the appropriation law for the year, the same section limits such expenditure to the tune of the appropriation made for the immediate preceding year, which in this case is 2015. Regrettably, in respect of this particular expenditure, the 2015 Budget of Edo State does not contain any single item of appropriation upon which this expenditure was made.

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it is quite obvious that the State was held hostage by Governor Adams Oshiomhole and his appointees in a determined bid to drain it of its meagre financial resources. The tactics used to perpetrate this serious financial recklessness is clear: approve payment without appropriation, vire funds without approval.

We are determined to further take this matter up and many others to which our attention have been drawn with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Anti-Corruption Agency (ICPC) and the Edo State House of Assembly for full investigation and prosecution of those involved in defrauding the state of its meagre resources.