By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – THE Edo state government has threatened to sanction Federal government-supported commercial vehicles that have converted CNG and still refused to reduce their fares by at least 50 per cent.

The Special Adviser to Governor Monday Okpebholo on Oil and Gas Felix Isere Esq. stated this at a policy dialogue organized by the state government in collaboration with Policy House to mark the governor’s 100 Days in office.

Isere said “When we came on board, we saw that there was a federal government project in terms of progression to gas initiative and we are ready to partner with the federal government on this. I contacted the Presidential Initiative on CNG, and we discovered that Edo State was entitled to 20 CNG buses and these buses have not been given to us, I have done a memo to the governor and the governor has approved so we are trying to get those buses and we will get them very soon

“We also discovered that Edo State was given 200 conversion kits and those kits are to assist public transport and the agreement was that once the federal government pays for your conversion, you reduce the cost of transportation by 50 percent but we discovered that these kits were given to people we don’t know so we summoned the coordinator and we discovered that those who got the free kits were charging the same fare as others and when asked the reasons, they said the NURTW has warned them not reduce their fare so what we plan to do is that if you have go the conversion and you refuse to reduce your fare, we will seize the vehicle.”

In his welcome address, the Executive Director of Policy House, Taiwo Akerele said the government of Adams Oshimhole between 2008 and 2016 attempted to properly the state’s economy along a well thought out methodology referred to as Sector Strategy Plan (SSP) “This 10-year multiple sectoral plans gave birth to the Ministerial cluster strategy which eventually grouped ministries in the state into different delivery platforms to enhance public sector efficiency”

He said this led to massive developmental strides of that administration like he red roof revolution, urban renewal projects, Benin Water Storm, and several donor agency-supported projects among others, he said the momentum died with the last administration but commended Okpebholo for going that route once again with the Edo Rising Agenda.