Trojaninsights.com Editorial
Governor Obaseki’s eight-year tenure in Edo State was marked by several controversies, including allegations of conflict of interest and cronyism. One of the most glaring examples is the involvement of Afrinvest and Banwo Ighodalo in various projects, including Radisson Blue, Sobe Farms, the Benin Industrial Park, Benin Sea Port, Benin Mall, and the total destruction of public education in Edo State.
At the beginning of his administration, erstwhile Governor Obaseki told the world that Radisson Blue, Ossiomo Power Plant and several other government investments under his watch built with the state’s treasury belong to Edo State Government. His penchant for open-ended and manifest fraud remained classic in the annals of financial corruption.
On September 5, 2022, the governor told journalists in Benin City that “the Ossiomo Power Project is the brainchild of the Edo State Government to make the state self-sustaining in power supply.
“The 95MW facility was given birth to through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Ossiomo Power Company and owned by Edo State Government to power government offices and hospitals, as well as street lights in Benin metropolis.”.
Surprisingly, a few days before his exit from office, after 8 years of waste, deception and fraud, Obaseki recanted that Ossiomo Power Plant, including other companies he earlier claimed belonged to Edo State Government, no longer belonged to Edo State but to private individuals, whose identities he refused to disclose.
A socio-economic group, Onitsha Zone Shareholders’ Association, has uncovered plans by Afrinvest, a company owned by a former governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, to sell N100 billion bond with the aim of converting it to his personal shares in the future. The group, led by its chairman, Bishop Goodluck Akpore, disclosed this during a protest visit to Governor Monday Okpebholo in the government house in Benin City.
During the visit, Bishop Akpore expressed dissatisfaction with the alleged plan, citing its adverse economic impact on the state and its communities. He presented a report highlighting issues involving Okomu Oil Palm and Presco PLC and urged Governor Okpebholo to initiate a thorough investigation and take corrective actions to mitigate any further harm.
The association accused Obaseki of using his Afrinvest Company to plan a ₦100 billion bond transaction involving Presco PLC and alleged a potential conversion of the bond to shares for personal gains.
Bishop Akpore alleged that the oil palm companies colluded with Obaseki’s administration to deprive the state of economic benefits and criticized the refusal of Presco PLC to compensate host communities for the 36,388 hectares of land acquired for their operations.
He also highlighted the failure of the Obaseki administration to enforce tax collection from the companies, despite their significant profits and lack of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
“A trailer load of palm oil leaving Edo State for Lagos is valued at around ₦80 million,” Akpore stated. “Yet, these companies neither remit taxes nor compensate for the lands they have used freely,” Bishop Akpore said on behalf of the group.
Exposing the sleaze of former Obaseki’s administration further, beyond the disclosures of Bishop Akpore and his group, sources in Edo State’s Ministry of Finance told Trojaninsights.com that these underlisted companies were paid hefty sums for services that could have been provided by civil servants in the Justice or Finance Ministries but were contracted out to cronies from Lagos and Delta States.
Presco Oil Palm PLC and Okomu Oil Palm PLC were some of Godwin Obaseki’s major fertile cesspools of corruption. His undisclosed share stakes in the multi-billion dollar companies were said to be responsible for Godwin Obaseki’s gifting of Edo State community land totaling 36,388 hectares to Presco Oil Palm PLC. Presco PLC’s net income for 2023 was NGN32,861.334 million ($32.86 billion). This was a 152.15% increase from 2022, when their net income was NGN13,032.424 million ($13.03 billion). In 2023, Okomu Oil Palm Company PLC’s net income was N20 billion, which was a 27% increase from the previous year. The company’s revenue for 2023 was N75,107.842 million. It is either that these two companies didn’t pay tax to Edo State Government for straight 8 years of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration or the money was fraudulently collected under the table.
Trojaninsights.com findings revealed that the last time both companies paid taxes to the Edo State Government is alleged to be during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor between 2008 to 2015. This has raised questions about the transparency and accountability of Governor Obaseki’s administration, who governed the state with absolute bitterness, iron fists, and barefaced looting of the public till. For four years, Obaseki locked out dully elected 14 Edo State House of Assembly members, despite the call for their swearing-in and various courts rulings.
It’s essential to note that Governor Obaseki has also been credited with achievements during his tenure, including improvements in physical infrastructure like the State Secretariat buildings. However, these accomplishments are overshadowed by the perception of graft and plunder that has characterized his administration for 8 years.
The plundering and deliberate ruination of Edo State’s treasury was more visible and vicious with the degradation of public schools after Governor Obaseki allegedly diverted N129.12bn education funds alongside the disappearance of $75m World Bank loans from the state’s treasury.
Dr. Obasogie Fred, one of the thousands of Godwin Obaseki’s victims in the tertiary institution at the College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi, vowed never to have a dubious and destructive governor like him again.
“Former Governor Ogbomwanyese Godwin Obaseki destroyed the educational institutions with his draconian policies and self-centeredness, believing that it was a money-making venture instead of rendering a social service to Edo people.”.
“Obaseki closed down College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi, College of Education Ekiadolor, College of Aquaculture Agenebode, College of Physical Education Afuze, and Institute of Continue Education, Benin.
“All workers salaries stopped in addition to their illegal sack. In the case of the College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi, the staff went to court and got judgment, but Obaseki refused to obey the judgment.
“The monthly subvention accruable to the institutions was embezzled by Godwin Obaseki for several years; all government intervention by both international and local donors was also diverted. This is aside from the wanton destruction by Obaseki and the illegal Special Intervention Team (SIT) perpetuated in Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, where over 50 professors died untimely deaths after refusing to pay them their wages for three years.
“We sincerely appeal to the government of Senator Okpebholo to please extend his goodwill to these institutions by reopening them, calling the staffs back to work and paying them the arrears of their salaries and allowances; with that, he will write his name in gold,” Dr. Obasogie Fred, Provost, College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, pleaded.
Sources from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) revealed that Godwin Obaseki, Dr. Joan Oviawe, and Ms. Ozavize Salami, the immediate past Edo State Commissioner for Education and Chairperson of the Edo State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), respectively, who jointly diverted education funds and plunged public schools into chaos and are presently in hiding, have been invited to account for the public funds.
Under Obaseki’s administration, the stench of corruption was responsible for arrested development for the 8 years of the locusts. In case you don’t have an idea, corruption is a vile disease that sucks and drains the health; corruption is a moral virus, and it’s so potent and lethargic and unable to realize and accomplish all that a whole state can achieve. Where corruption thrives, poverty, not prosperity, thrives. In a corrupt government like the one Godwin Obaseki ran for 8 years, wealth was grabbed into the greedy, grubby hands of those who got fat on the toil of the good people of Edo State. His corrupt administration benefits only temporarily those who partake in it; everyone else is fed with the deceit and lies that corruption feeds on.
Edo and Nigerian people need to know that a corrupt person like Godwin Obaseki stole from them. They should know that corruption is filthy work and a despicable act of treachery done under the table and behind closed doors. We should know that corruption is a disgusting shame that keeps a nation back from true development and from progress, and that is why investors stay away from a corrupt society. Under Governor Obaseki’s administration, many wonderful development projects have been lost because investors do not want to do business in a swamp of evil. When those great projects go to another state or nation, the Edo people lose.
Without mincing words, corruption plundered Edo State’s wealth for 8 regrettable years. Corrupt people like Godwin Obaseki compromise on truth, equity and fairness, choosing instead to feed off short-term benefits and exploitation and financial perversion. For many, corruption is a personal matter. Corruption is a way of life for groups of people, companies, communities, governments and nations. Corrupt individuals and nations hiding behind large companies like Okomu and Presco PLC will seek to invest in weak nations in order to take over the assets of smaller nations that they have invested in. They will provide financial loans with assets they have submitted and the stolen money from the government treasury. They will sign contracts by lining the pockets of corrupt government officials.
In the final analysis, corruption is nothing less than a form of theft and national robbery. A corrupt person steals from everyone in the society and we all lose when corruption is rampant. Those who participate in corruption have chosen evil over good, lies over truth and personal gain over the well-being of all. To be corrupt means to be rotten; when meat is corrupt, it stinks and rots. Rotten meat can’t be eaten. A corrupt person should be jailed in order to protect the society from the deeds of corrupt people. The government should be protecting the citizens from the veil of corruption.
When corruption thrives, it defeats the health of the nation. When corruption is systemic and allowed to thrive, it defeats the progress of nations. Defeating corruption is a very difficult thing; those who love money will do almost anything possible to get it. Those who choose to stand up against corruption need to know that they are going to be involved in a war; they will be threatened, vilified, intimidated, marginalized and ridiculed. These kinds of people who stand up against corruption will often feel alone as if they are the problem. Corruption will only be defeated when people have heard enough about it and decided to do something about it.
