By SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN

In the past one month in EdoState, the political atmosphere has been calm. There seems to be  temporary cessation of criticisms of the Governor Adams Oshiomhole led administration by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). But that calm was punctured once again, last weekend, when the party led by its Chairman in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, accused the state government of planning to sell the Edo House in Lagos to its cronies in government.

Saturday Vanguard recalled that there were similar attempts to sell the House during the administration of Governor Lucky Igbinedion but that move met a brick wall, at the state House of Assembly, when the then Majority Leader of the House, Mr Patrick Obahiagbon (Igodomigodo) who today is Chief of Staff to the Edo State Government, moved a motion stopping the government from going on with the sale of the property. As at that time, there was already crisis within the PDP in the state between loyalists of the current Chairman Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih and that of the then Governor Igbinedion.

*Oshiomhole

The Speaker of the House then was Mr Friday Itulah, who is known to be an unrepentant loyalist of the PDP leader. Obahiagbon’s motion was unanimously endorsed by the lawmakers then and consequently halted Igbinedion’s move to sell the building. The bickering in the party over shadowed the reasons adduced by the Igbinedion administration to sell the building.

However, due to the dilapidated nature of the property, it was not surprising to many that the Oshiomhole’s administration came up with an advertisement penultimate week announcing plans to sell the Edo House. But that attracted the angst of the PDP which vowed to stop the governor.

Addressing newsmen, Chief Orbih claimed that the property which according to him is valued at over N3.5billion is one of the most priced assets owned by the state government and therefore it would be illegal to sell the property. Orbih alleged that the state government hired one Segun Asaju and Company as the estate agency to supervise the sales of the property, saying that it was a fraudulent attempt by the state government to sell the property to its cronies and vowed that the party will stop it. He said: “ How was Segun Asaju and Company selected by the Edo state Government to supervise the sale of the state most priced property?”

In Edo state, we have qualified Property Estate valuers who are paying exorbitant taxes in the state .Did Oshiomhole advertise the sale of Edo House? We have known from the onset that this process has been designed by the state government to meet the interest of a top government official who is interested in acquiring Edo House at all cost even through fraudulent means”.

But Oshiomhole who described the criticism as mischievous and petty, said he intends to sell the Edo House with a view to use the proceeds to build a five star hotel and a business district in Benin City. Oshiomhole who accused the PDP administration then in Edo of destroying the property, said he owes no apologies to the PDP as his major interest is to ensure development of Benin City before his exit from office.

His words: “ Edo House was built at the time when Lagos was still the capital of Nigeria and I believe every state government has a liaison office in Lagos. Some use the houses as guest houses for officials.

“Edo House happened to be in a very prime area in Lagos but once the capital was relocated to Abuja, the status of Lagos changed. Lagos is still a very important city but it is now the commercial and the industrial heart beat of Nigeria. It is no longer the political headquarters. But if you own a property in Lagos, like every responsible government, Lagos state government will expect you to pay rate on the property or land use as we are trying to do in EdoState.

Now, since my assumption of office here, I have gone to Lagos and some of my commissioners have also gone there to assess the state of affairs in our Lagos office, and we were shocked to find a state of disrepair. The building has been abandoned for long, it has been on lease to private individuals who use part of it as an hotel.

They do not remit money to government. When we tried to get them to release the money, they went to court. We are moving from one court room to the other spending money on lawyers while the property is wasting away. I asked myself whether it is in the interest of the good people of Edo state to continue to maintain that property and take Edo tax payers money to pay taxes on the property.

Recently, we had a bill of about N60million from Lagos state government on the property. Since being a governor, I have never stayed in Edo State Laison office, my predecessors never stayed there. Perhaps the last time anybody stayed there may be during the military regime. When I go to Lagos, I stay in a hotel and EdoState government pays for that hotel. So, what now is the value of maintaining that property. It is not yielding any income for Edo state and it is attracting charges.

So, we deliberated on it at the state executive council and we felt that the primary reason for acquiring that property is no longer valid since the capital has relocated to Abuja. And subsequently, we have Edo House in Abuja which serves as our liaison office where we have staff and officials. So, the building in Lagos is therefore no longer relevant, so we decided to put it on sale”.

Oshiomhole asserted further that “ unlike what PDP government did before, we decided that the process has to be transparent and there is only one way to make a process transparent. Get everything advertised. The fact is that we want to sell the house rather than do selective bidding so that whoever has money to buy can buy. Our intension is that when we sell the building, we can use the money to build a property in Benin. We have two projects which God willing and the funds are available, I intend to accomplish before the end of my tenure.

“The most central one in my heart, is building a five star hotel with a conference center and banquet facilities and seminar rooms in a strategic place in Benin City because given our location, the gate way to the East, to the North and to the West and the South South, Benin City is simply the center of Nigeria.  So, I am convinced that we need a five-star hotel so that we can take advantage of our location”. Oshiomhole stated further that “for me, it is about thinking for the future, now if we sell Edo House, whatever money we realize from it, I think it will make more sense for Edo people to divert from Lagos and bring investment down to Edo state. So, I will use the money to build a five-star hotel.If the money is not enough, we will use it to start the construction and find other resources to complete it. Incidentally, during my last visit to Washington about ten days ago, if everything worked fine, I had a deal with the American overseas Nexin Bank to fund the construction of a hotel. If that comes to pass, we expect to raise about N250million Dollars. If we get that, we can have a five-star Marriot Hotel that will forever change the face of Benin City and make a bold statement about our tourist potential as a state. So, since we cannot physically relocate the house in Lagos to Benin, we had put it in the market and we will use the proceed to develop Benin City. My mandate is not to develop Lagos, my mandate is to develop Edo state and therefore I have no apologies for those who think that purely for political reasons, we should keep our largest asset in Lagos to be wasting away. The responsibility of a governor is to think not just about today but about the future.

“Secondly” he said, “ we have a design that has been completed to build Benin City business district where we had the Agidingbi house. It will have a very beautiful edifice around that King Square and it will complete the statement we want to make around the King Square because it will be recalled at the beginning they said we were just planting flowers but now they know we are not just planting flowers, we are constructing and we are building. Our vision is clear that by the time we are done with our urban renewal programme in Benin City, when you stand at the King Square, at night it will be a beauty to behold. That is my challenge and if selling Lagos House will give us the resource to transform Benin City, I will do so without apologies to PDP”.

They trivialize issues that ought to engage serious thinking. Unlike the PDP, we had to advertise the property, the fact that we advertised, it shows that we are transparent, more honest and more committed.

We will build a city center that will have a cinema and offices, banks. Previous PDP government sold all kinds of properties in GRA, today we don’t have any guest house because those properties were sold. And none of those properties were advertised. One of the PDP senators acquired a land here less than a million naira, on a GRA land.

That case is not yet closed, we are looking at it with a view to recovering it and if he wants to use it, we will put it on its market value, if he can afford it he takes it but if he cannot, we confiscate it and put it to public use. The PDP people are free to bid for the property, we will try as much as we can to protect the best interest of Edo state on this matter. PDP’s pain is that they were hoping that one day, like every thief will hope, that one day the owner might fall asleep, they might be able to sneak in, acquire power and then auction the bid to themselves.

But no body in this government is entitled even to bid for that property, not to talk of acquiring it, none of us is interested. So, I ask you to monitor the process as transparent as you can when we begin to receive bidding, you will  find out how much it is sold and who bought it. We are not distracted, we are proceeding with the sales and we are going to use the proceed to develop Benin” he insisted.