PDP Lacks Moral Right To Question Oshiomhole – APC

by Oladapo Oreoluwa

The All Progressives Congress has taken a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party for accusing the APC-led government in Edo State of financial mismanagement, stating that it “lacks the moral justification” to question the governor’s expenses.

The Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, had accused Governor Adams Oshiomhole of spending over N400m on a trip to the United States, adding that the party (PDP) had documents to back up its claim.

However, the state Chairman of the APC, Anselm Ojezua, in statement in Benin, said the document containing the alleged travel expenses of the governor showed that the expenditure was authorized by the appropriation law and passed by the state House of Assembly.

Ojezua claimed that the World Bank had commended the governor’s administration for its transparency in the award of contracts and other government expenditure.

The state chairman told his counterpart in the PDP to, rather, worry about his party’s (PDP) “scandal as regards the $9.3 million smuggled into South Africa by the PDP-led government,” rather than “making a mountain out of a mole hill.”

Ojezua said, “Orbih is making a mountain out of a mole hill because from the documents he exhibited, you could see that it was a memo emanating in accordance with the public service rules, indicating compliance with the law as it relates to public expenditure.

“It is also evident that the expenditure itself is authorized from the appropriation law from the Edo State House of Assembly. At all times it is expected that governance will always carry cost attached to it; that is the reason why provisions are made for various items in the budget.

“In this respect, there is no expenditure that was made under the authority of the governor that was outside the budget. Let me say also that neither Orbih nor the PDP had the legal justification to criticize the governor.

“Neither Orbih nor PDP had the moral or legal justification with regards to financial profligacy because even now as we speak, the South African government is investigating an attempt by a private individual in Nigeria to smuggle in $9.3 million from Nigeria to South Africa, and the Nigerian Government, the PDP government at the federal level has admitted complicity in that matter.”

He said the attempt to transfer the $9.3 million from Nigeria reportedly to make purchases was in violation of the Public Procurement Act and without the knowledge of the South African Government.

He also alleged that a chieftain of the PDP in the state, who was reported to have harboured $50 million had been apprehended by an anti-graft agency in the country.