By  Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—EDO State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  has faulted the recent retreat by Edo State Government for its Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries, claiming it was wasteful in the midst of scare resources.

State chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, said the “three days at the  luxurious Transcorp Hotel with members of cabinet, permanent secretaries and other government officials is not a way to finish well; it is a way of ending badly.”

Orbih

However, responding to PDP’s criticism, Special Adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Media Affairs,Mr. Kassim Afegbua, said: “For those who possess deficient intellect, they might not understand the essence of retreat. For those who understand the gravity of governance, a retreat creates an intellectual platform to run through challenges and issues of governance to make service delivery much more focused, based on needs, not frivolities.

“We are not going to be bugged down by PDP’s meddlesome and psychedelic politicians who think the only way to be relevant is to be irrelevant critics. We are doing the needful to ensure we sustain our ongoing legacies by judicious application of funds for the benefit of Edo people. I don’t want to glorify Dan Orbih with a response. PDP lacks the depth to understand governance and it is the reason they will continue to remain in opposition in Edo State”

Chief Orbih, who spoke weekend, in Benin, during the opening of a new state headquarters of the party located on First East Circular Road, in Benin, claimed that millions of naira that would have been used to bring development to the state was wasted during the three days retreat.

He said: “Financial bailout by Buhari is a way of encouraging corruption. The president should ask why the councils could not meet their financial obligations. The proper thing is a probe of the councils’ allocations, not giving them money. In Edo, the reason is known to everyone that Governor Oshiomhole collects what is due the councils and he is responsible for the problem the councils are facing.”