Kehinde Fajobi
The Edo State Government has revealed that nearly 500 of its vehicles remain unaccounted for, according to Fred Itua, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Monday Okpebholo.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Monday, Itua stated that the initial figure of 200 missing vehicles, reported by the committee tasked with recovering state assets, has now increased significantly.
“So far, the committee set up to recover vehicles, as of this morning from findings that I made, they had recovered about 10 vehicles,” he said.
“From the conversation I had with the chairman of that committee, he said that the initial figure of 200 was understated—that there are almost 500 vehicles that are still missing.
“As of yesterday, they had traced about 21 of those vehicles to the house of a very top appointee of the last government.”
Itua further disclosed that some of the vehicles were linked to former officials of the Godwin Obaseki administration.
“Then, another—about 15—traced to the house of another [top appointee of Obaseki’s government], and in the coming days, they intend to legitimately recover these vehicles and other assets belonging to the state so that is being held in private hands which ordinarily should not have happened,” he added.
He also claimed that the current administration inherited virtually nothing from Obaseki’s government and noted that some officials in Governor Okpebholo’s administration lack official vehicles.
The missing vehicles are the latest issue in the strained relationship between Governor Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obaseki, who handed over office weeks ago, has dismissed probes into his administration as politically motivated. His media aide, Crusoe Osagie, described the investigations as “a smokescreen” to cover Okpebholo’s alleged inadequacies.
“We know what their plans are with the diversionary probes. It is just a smokescreen to mask the governor-select’s incompetence and unpreparedness for office, having come into power through a stolen mandate,” Osagie said.
He urged Okpebholo to focus on governance, saying, “We want to advise Okpebholo to focus on governance and improving the lives of Edo people rather than waste state resources masking his incompetence in meaningless probes.”
The state government has defended its actions, insisting that the probes are part of efforts to ensure accountability and transparency in governance.