The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Edo State election, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has challenged incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Godwin Obaseki to point out the projects he claimed to have executed in over three years of his administration.
Ize-Iyamu, who accused the governor of wasting over 75bn on projects that have all gone to waste, queried: Where are the projects? Where are the roads? Where are the hospitals?
The APC candidate spoke on Sunday night during the governorship debate put together by Channels Television and its partners.
Reacting to claims by Obaseki that the government of Adams Oshiomhole left Edo State in so much debt before handing over; Mr. Ize-Iyamu said: “it is scandalous” that the incumbent governor is attributing the huge debt owed by Edo State, to a predecessor in whose government he served as a chief economic adviser.
“Some times you seem to forget the role you played in the past government,” the APC candidate told Obaseki.
He proceeded to give examples of sectors and projects for which ‘Obaseki has collected staggering loans’, with nothing to show for them.
“Let me give you just an example, in the agricultural sector, the loan that the governor has collected is staggering.
“The failed Sobe Maize project, 2billion went down the drain. The Agenebode rice project 5billion went down the drain and then the oil palm project you have collected 69billion from the Central Bank and the money has been shared with cronies, and no Edo person has benefitted from that money and I can tell you that has also gone down the drain.
“So just from agriculture alone, I have named three areas where over N75bn has been collected, not to talk about monies you are collecting from the World Bank and the rest of them.
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“You came in at a time when you had so much windfall, Paris Club, bailout funds, 75million C4 World Bank loan, all these monies came in, what did you do with them?
“All the promises that you made remain unfulfilled,” Ize-Iyamu stated.
He maintained that in the past four years, the Edo state economy has been mismanaged and plundered, stressing that all the huge amounts that we receive at the inception of this administration have practically left the state without any serious project to show for them.
He said Edo state is in a sorry state because Obaseki mismanaged its economy.