By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—EDO State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the state government of creating a fraudulent culture of awarding contracts and reviewing same, so as to increase the contract sum, citing the Upper Lawani flood and erosion control, which it said was increased to N4.62 billion from the initial sum of N1.5 billion.

The party said that the resources of the state were being siphoned through processes it described as conduit, created by the state government and a sustained process of re-awarding contracts.

State Chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, who spoke at Iguobazuwa, Ovia South-West Local government Area of the state during a rally organised to welcome defectors from the All Progressives Congress, APC to PDP, accused the state government of spending the sum of N23 million on frivolities in Government House in the month of July alone.
He assured the defectors that the PDP will not be deterred in its effort to sack APC from power, promising that Edo State will soon join Ekiti and Ondo states as PDP states.

Providing details of the spending, he said the sum N16.25 million was spent on food and drink while tea took the sum of N4.2 million from the state purse.
“It is no longer news that the Adams Oshiomhole government has plunged the state into financial mess. What the Edo people should, however, know is the reasons the state is now broke. Sadly, the Oshiomhole government has taken an immoral path of making the citizens of Edo State pay for what he is doing through numerous oppressive tax policies and levies.”