Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, has berated the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, for fabricating stories of an empty treasury against the state government to score cheap political points and save his ebbing political career.
PDP last Sunday had urged its governorship aspirants to begin to brace up to the challenges of inheriting empty treasury after the party might have won the forthcoming elections.
The party alleged that Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has emptied the treasury through indebtedness.
Orbih, who spoke at Fugar in Etsako Central Local Government Area of the state during a sensitisation rally for PDP members ahead of the party’s primaries, said Edo State is the second most indebted state in Nigeria and dared the governor to declare the true state of indebtedness to the people of the state.
He told PDP governorship aspirants to prepare for hard times at Government House, alleging that they are going to inherit empty treasury.
But, Osagie, in a statement noted that the rumours of an empty treasury were products of Orbih’s imagination as there’s no proof to that effect.
According to him, “The chairman of the PDP in Edo State, Dan Orbih, has once again gone to town with yet another fabrication about an empty treasury in Edo State. To set the records straight, the accusation is false, misleading and ill-conceived.
“We are familiar with Orbih and such beer-parlour gossip is his stock-in-trade. As chairman of the PDP, which is about to hold its congress, he is seeking means to be relevant amid plans to oust him from office.
“We are happy to report to Edo people that we have maintained a healthy balance sheet, with perhaps the most transparent and prudent government in the country.
“The Debt Management Office (DMO) attested to this during the last Alaghodaro Summit during which the state was given a healthy rating.”
Osagie added that the state government also runs one of the most transparent budgeting processes in the country and has a pact with the people to ensure an open government, which makes it possible for citizens to assess by themselves the financial standing of the state.
“Annual reports are published yearly. We are also signatories to a number of conventions on open governance and having maintained an open book for citizens who intend to follow the money trail in government. So, we wonder from where Orbih got his own facts from. He should be completely disregarded,” he said.
