Edo Poll: APC’s attack on Obaseki diversionary tactics, says aide

Crusoe Osagie, the Special Adviser on Media project to the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Sunday, said the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress is employing diversionary tactics ahead of the September 21 poll by making spurious allegations against his principal.

The Edo APC on Saturday accused Obaseki’s administration of monumental corruption, calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate some top government officials of the state.

The acting Chairman of the state’s APC, Jarret Tenebe, who made this claim at a press conference, said the EFCC had already invited some top government officials, urging the anti-graft agency to bring the investigation to a logical conclusion.

He said, “The latest plan by Obaseki to make the activities of his administration paperless is a criminal plan that has been designed by one Ugo who is in charge of e-governance, who has colluded with the governor to destroy all documents relating to fraudulent contracts with the excuse that the Edo government has gone paperless.”

He also queried the N28 billion being allegedly spent on a five-star hotel by the state government which he said was already at 85 per cent completion before the government took it over from its original owner.

In a statement on Sunday, Osagie said the APC used the press conference to cajole the Edo people, noting that the party has brought untold hardship to Nigerians.

He said, “The attention of the Edo State Government has been drawn to an ill-fated press outing by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in which they made several spurious and outlandish accusations.

“The shameful event is aimed at cajoling the Edo people and fruitlessly staging a strawman’s argument aimed at winning support for their lacklustre and tepid candidate in the September 21 Edo governorship election.

“After this party that is currently putting Nigerians through untold hardship, shortchanged themselves by picking a candidate that is unsuitable for a sophisticated state like Edo, they are deflecting, hiding the candidate behind a needle and taking an aim at novel governance innovations which they cannot understand because they have the worse intention for the people.”

The governor’s media aide added that “clearly, the APC’s only strategy ahead of the September 21 election is to deploy diversionary tactics and manufacture alternative facts in the hope that this will remove the spotlight from the obvious and disgraceful defects of their candidate, which has made the election a lost cause.

“In their presser, for instance, they rambled on about the ingenious transformation introduced by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration, which they are not intellectually equipped to understand. This is not unexpected because you cannot give what you don’t have. The profile of these individuals gives them away as people with no capacity for governance.

“In trying to sound smart, the APC took a swipe at the government’s e-governance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which was emplaced to drive transparency, accountability, traceability and digitisation in government. Arguing that it was overpriced and intended to delete public documents, they exposed their ignorance and betrayed their phobia for technology and forward-thinking.”

Osagie noted that the state “has invested in positioning its workforce and its larger population for opportunities presented in the Fourth Industrial Revolution through a robust digitization programme. With a state-wide fibre optic cable infrastructure and an advanced ERP system in place, all files have been archived and are easily retrievable.”

He stressed that the state APC chapter “is lost in its quest to plunder public resources and is scared that an ERP system would make it impossible for them to steal without a trace. So, they are out to demonise the system so that they can nurture the idea of hiding files, demanding for bribes for government processes to be hastened and feed fat on an old, dubious and opaque system of administration.”

“They make light of the investment in Radisson Hotel, a key addition to the State’s hospitality landscape. Edo today boasts only one international hospitality chain, the Protea brand managed by Marriot, with Radisson being the second.

“Much as there are a number of quality local brands, the potential benefits of increasing the number of international brands bodes well for the state’s nascent tourism sector. The state has lost the hosting right of a lot of international events on account of the limited presence of international brands,” Osagie added.