Former governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has denied leaving a debt of N600 billion, urging the Monday Okpehbolo-led administration to verify the information with the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, had, on Monday in Benin, claimed that the immediate past administration in the state left N600 billion in debt.
Reacting to Afegbua’s claim via a video call, Obaseki’s Media Adviser, Crusoe Osagie, challenged the current administration to visit the DMO to see whether Edo drew such debt.
Crusoe, who said no government at whatever level has the capacity to draw loans or enter into any debt arrangement without the knowledge and approval of the DMO, said the lies being spewed by the Okpebholo administration are giving the state and country a bad image.
He said such information gives the impression that the state is being governed by people who don’t understand what it means to run a government. Crusoe described the claim as false and outrightly out of place.
On the planned probe of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), Crusoe noted that MOWAA remained an international brand that entered into a business agreement with Edo State with all T’s crossed and all I’s dotted.
He insisted that every record about the transaction between MOWA and the Edo State Government was contained in the transition report.
He said, “MOWAA is an international investment drawing funds from the German government, the United Kingdom government, and the French government for its development. You think such an investment will be put on land that was not ceded to that organisation by the state?
“These people just come out there and toss all kinds of irresponsible information out there.
At the end of the day, what happens is that all of these turn around to form the intelligence that was gathered out of Nigeria by the international community.“It makes these countries think that the country is a failed state and the place is not being governed.