November 12 of every year is a day to remember in the annals of Edo developmental metamorphosis   as that was the day light flushed darkness away from the State.

In 2008, that was the day   Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole was sworn in to dislodge the   many failures of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state with a clear focus and purpose   to redistribute state resources for the masses.

This explains   why Edo people from all walks of life, at home and in Diaspora rolled out their drums recently to celebrate five years of unbroken development in the state by the Government of Comrade Oshiomhole.

For this year’s celebrations at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, the event witnessed   the presence of all   state government functionaries drawn from all the arms-Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. Dignitaries were invited and they came from all parts of the country-North, East, West, North Central, South-South and overseas. They massively graced the august event which was specifically a state function.

A day after   the celebrations, the chairman of the PDP, who out of shame could not attend the celebrations addressed a section of the media in Edo where he spoke out of the abundance of ignorance  and   made unfounded criticisms of the State Government and thoughtlessly accused the Chief Judge of Edo State, Justice Cromwell Idahosa of   “attending APC rally.”

Dan Orbih, who is currently operating a one-man show in the Edo PDP having usurped the duties of the Director of Publicity, Mathew Urhoghide and other officials and   having lost almost all his followers to the ruling party went hallucinating that he saw the Chief Judge of Edo State at the formal launch of our new party in Edo. This is a big fat lie! It is fetched from the pit of hell.

It is important, therefore to correct this wicked lie. The CJ   , Cromwell Idahosa, was not present at the launch of the APC in EdoState.     He only attended the state function which held at the stadium   in   his capacity as the   Chief Judge of the State.   APC was not launched at the stadium as falsely circulated by Orbih and his PDP. It was launched at the new APC secretariat along Airport Road. So, the event at the stadium attended by   the Chief Judge was simply a state function packaged to celebrate the five years anniversary and had nothing to do with partisan politics. It amounts to   the   approach of the witchcraft   to drag a serving Chief Judge into partisan politics where there is just no reason to do so. Orbih should apologise to the Edo State Chief Judge for falsely accusing him of an offence he never committed.

Secondly, Orbih accused the Edo State Government of borrowing over N250bn to finance development in the state. Edo State Government is in the good books of its creditors. Of what was borrowed to finance development, EdoState debt profile stands at   N35bn   with clear repayment schedules that is unbroken and has not entered into any new borrowing. At the rate the government is going, at the end of the Oshiomhole’s   administration in 2016, what his regime borrowed would have been liquidated because, he has consistently assured that he will not leave any debts for his successor as the PDP administration did to him when he   took over. It is on record that the Comrade-Governor has been servicing all the huge debts left behind by the PDP government in Edo.

In Edo today, people see what Oshiomhole used whatever money he   gets,   including borrowed, to do for citizens. In the world of development, borrowing is not bad. America today lives on borrowing and many other developed nations. What is bad is when you borrow irresponsibly and even steal the money borrowed on behalf of a people. I challenge Edo PDP to point to one project they executed with the billions of naira   that accrued to the state for 10 years and the billions they borrowed from the capital market during their locust years in the state.

Let us   even look at some   more burning issues in Nigeria and try to locate Orbih’s stands in all to really appreciate the character of this garrulous politician.   Where was Orbih when   the Bern Declaration recent report showed a multi-billion dollar scheme used by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and Nigerian importers all under the nose of the PDP   Federal Government , in connivance with Swiss oil traders, to rip Nigeria off to the tune of nearly $7 billion? Not a hoot from voluble   Orbih.

Our children in public universities   who have been kept at home for several months by the PDP Federal administration which has failed to honour a simple agreement it entered into with Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in 2009.   We have not heard a word from Orbih condemning the PDP government. Just as our children   were getting happy to return to school the convoy of a PDP Governor killed an illustrious son of EdoState, Prof Festus Iyayi. Orbih’s voice is not heard among all those who have condemned the Governor’s reckless driving with his entourage on our high ways having dispatched so many Nigerians to their untimely graves in his three avoidable   accidents. So, Edo people should disregard Orbih.

DAN OWEGIE is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State.