Edo: Okpebholo didn’t invite me to his inauguration – Gov Obaseki laments

Outgoing Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has lamented that he has not been invited to the inauguration of his successor, Monday Okpebholo.

Obaseki said his government has not being consulted in the preparations for Okpebholo’s inauguration, scheduled for Tuesday.

Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, won the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.

The outgoing governor condemned the APC’s actions as lawless, stressing that the state government should oversee the inauguration program.

The governor spoke in Benin City during the inauguration of the caretaker committee for the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Somebody has to be sworn in. Sworn into a government that exists. You just don’t come from nowhere and start a government. There is already a government.

“There is a way things are done.

“The government of Edo State is inaugurating a new governor on Tuesday. But what you are seeing now, all the posters, the government of Edo State is not involved.

“So, it is crazy when people just behave the way they are behaving as if there are no laws in the country. I just sit down sometimes and wonder.

“So, they are doing inauguration, I as a governor don’t know. Not even being invited.

“So it is like they are starting a brand new state and government,” Obaseki said.

DAILY POST reported that the APC had raised the alarm over alleged conversion of political appointees to full time civil servants by Obaseki, six days to the end of his tenure.

Prince Kassim Afegbua, a member of the APC, transition committee, made the allegation in a statement made available to newsmen last Wednesday in Benin City.

The APC alleged that the political appointees that are being converted to full time civil servants are Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants.

The party said 186 of such appointees were appointed by the governor in September 2024, thereby bloating the number of aides around him.

It also alleged that the outgoing governor has just commenced the process of absorbing another 152 aides.