By Ozioruva Aliu, BENIN CITY

The Assets Verification Committee set up by Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State two weeks ago has uncovered how the contract sum for the Benin-Abraka Road Phase 1C was inflated from N8 billion to N16 billion within a year.

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However, in a swift reaction on Friday, the media aide to former governor, Godwin Obaseki, Crusoe Osagie, described the allegation as spurious and baseless.

He added that it was a desperate attempt to denigrate and rewrite the sterling legacy of the immediate past governor.

The committee is headed by Afolabi Umakhihe, a retired Permanent Secretary in the federal civil service.

Obahiagbon

Meanwhile, speaking to journalists on its activities, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Physical Assets, Patrick Obahiagbon, said the committee became interested in the road based on a petition it received alleging that the contract may have been reviewed twice in six months for the September 21 governorship election.

He added that their findings justified the allegations made by the petitioners.

He said, “The reason we have to take pains to particularly visit this site was based on a petition from Edo State citizens that we have just received. 

“And the narrations of the construction firm’s project manager seem to justify the reasons and the nitty-gritty of that petition.

“The content of that petition was to the effect that there were massive reviews of contracts on this project because of the election. 

“It absolutely makes no sense that within one year, a road contract sum would be varied from N8 billion to N12 billion and, in June, some few months to the election, maybe for election purposes, the contract sum again was varied from N12 billion to N16 billion.”

Also, a member of the subcommittee, Engr. Abass Braimah, who frowned at the development, said the increment was 100 percent. 

“I don’t think there is anywhere in Nigeria or outside of this sub-national that a project can be awarded for N8 billion, reviewed to N12 billion, and further reviewed to N16 billion. 

“Why not just review it and take the entire purse of Edo State? If we can review from N8 billion to upward of between N12 billion and N16 billion in one year? 

“What has substantially changed for you to have a 100 percent increment from N8 billion to N16 billion? Meanwhile, the job specification or contents have not changed. It is still the same thing.”

Tinubu’s government cause it — Obaseki’s camp

The statement by Osagie said the road contract was awarded around May 2023, when the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu assumed office.

But that “It is on record that immediately after the president took office, the removal of subsidy and the devaluation of the naira occurred, plummeting the naira and driving inflation up by over 300 percent.

“Between May and September 2023, the economy had experienced drastic price increases due to relentless inflation.

“The price of cement climbed from about N3,000 to N15,000, fuel jumped from about N190 to over N600 per litre, and a bag of rice which used to be about N23,000 rose to over N100,000.

“Other items including rods, sand, diesel, and even logistics and manpower skyrocketed astronomically.

“It shouldn’t, therefore, be surprising that the contract sum for the project, which was initially scheduled to commence in May but only began in September, had to be reviewed.

“It was revalued the first time because the inflation had just started and had to be reviewed again because the inflation was relentless.

“Unfortunately, the committee is so blinded by their bias that they decided to orchestrate this blackmail in a desperate effort to tarnish the image of the immediate past governor, while neglecting the fact that the galloping inflation occasioned by the gross mismanagement of the national economy by their own government at the centre, was what was responsible for the review and increase in the contract sum.”

Vanguard News