(OPINION) Obaseki, Ighodalo fund Edo protests, hoard donated Rice
8 min read
…Okpebholo’s Mega Empowerment Gifts Esan People Cars, Rice, Fertilizers etc.
By Sebastine Ebhuomhan
Tuesday, 6th August, 2024. Abuja. As you are reading this essay now, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the leading party in Edo State 2024 governorship election contest, Distinguished Senator Monday Okpebholo, alias Akpakomiza is in Esan Land, Edo Central District, which he legislates for at the Senate of the National Assembly.
Contrary to the narratives, lies, distractions, and vomits of the opposition about Okpebholo hiding in Abuja instead of campaigning in Edo, it is a historic and unforgettable day today for APC state and national leaders and members as Okpebholo proudly launches the ‘mother-of-all-empowerment’ programme to intentionally and positively impact the lives of the people of Edo Central, who overwhelmingly voted him into his office in February 2023.
Tagged: First Batch Mega Empowerment Programme, Okpebholo would be distributing entrepreneurship materials and palliatives that the Federal Government has provided for the people of the district as the APC National Leader, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, directed him to do. The humble, gentle, peaceful, respectful and reserved lawmaker has therefore served an open invitation to all for a massive turn up as he makes history in Edo State.
A statement from the Office of Okpebholo, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Procurement stated, “The beneficiaries of this first batch of empowerment programme and distribution of entrepreneurship materials which totalled one thousand and two hundred people (1, 200), cut across the five (5) local government areas of Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan West, Esan South East, and Igueben.”
“The number of beneficiaries would be divided evenly across the 5 LGAs and 51 wards in Edo Central Senatorial District. The schedule for the First Batch Mega Empowerment Programme, distribution of entrepreneurship materials and palliatives is as follows. Date: Tuesday, August 6th, 2024. Time: 10 am. Venue: Okaijesan Townhall Premises, Irrua, Esan Central LGA.”
Signed on behalf of Okpebholo by his Legislative Aide on Media and Communications, Godswill Inegbe, the statement listed the following items to be distributed free-of-charge.
1. 30 Cars
2. Agricultural Equipment
3. Farm Crop Fertilizers
4. Sowing and Welding Machines
5. Thousands of Bags of Rice
6. Grants.
“Senator Okpebholo wishes to use this moment to once again thank the people of Esan Land for standing firmly by him always and entrusting him with their mandate. He assures his constituents of his continued service, adding that the wellbeing and welfare of the people of Edo Central and the infrastructural development of the district will always remain the focus of his representation and leadership,” the statement concluded.
As Okpebholo and the APC are working to raise a new Edo State through the upliftment of the people’s lives, the PDP, Governor Godwin Obaseki and his puppet, Dr. Akintunde Asuerinme Ighodalo, in contra-distinction, are allegedly hoarding several thousands of bags of rice donated to the people of the state to cushion the hard times. Although the PDP, Edo State government and the Ighodalo Campaign Organisation are yet to recover from the intentional murder of the security detail of the Senator, the late Inspector Akor Onu, by the armed Edo State Security Network personnel after which all the police invited suspected murderers have since fled into hiding under the immunity of the governor, the government stumbled into a new controversy of rice hoarding. Viral videos in public domain showed illegal warehouses, where PDP leaders’ allegedly hidden bags of rice were broken and looted by #EndBadGovernance protesters.
Ahead of the protests, unconfirmed rumours had it that the governor had budgeted N500 million to fund the protests in Edo State. Instead of denying, the government merely accused APC leaders, especially the lawmaker of Edo North District in the Senate, Distinguished Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the APC candidate of recruiting thugs for the destruction of public properties. To further worsen its confusion, the government alleged just before the protests began that the same APC leaders were seeking to stop the protests to avoid shame.
However, on the 1st of August, it turned out that Governor Obaseki had truly funded the protest in Edo State through proxies. The government was responsible for the construction of an iron podium fitted with sound system at Ring Road with which the protesters later cursed and booed Obaseki out when he tried to address them. Unknown to the governor who was shamefully labelled as one of the problems of Nigeria, those he encouraged to be recruited for the protest had gotten wind of the how his government hoarded the rice the Federal Government gave to each state as national food palliatives.
The breaking of the illegal rice warehouses at Urora and Eyaen in Benin City by curious and suspicious members of the public questioned the integrity of a bleeding PDP and the violent Obaseki leadership. While the government was yet to formally respond as at the time of publishing this report, a voice within Ighodalo campaign organisation, Pharez Okpere, denied that the hoarded rice belonged to the government. In a counter explanation, Ighodalo’s paid hatchet writer, John Mayaki, linked the bags of rice to the state government’s feeding programme for religious organisations. Yet, both lame excuses failed to explain the obvious rebranding of the bags of rice.
According to the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, the Federal Government has released about 740 trucks of rice to the 36 states of the federation at 20 trucks of 5, 500 10-kilogram bags for approximately 24, 000 bags per state for the neediest citizens on the orders of President Tinubu. Governor Obaseki is yet to either acknowledge the rice or admit its rebranding and conversion.
Comrade Oshiomhole further stoked the issue as a front burner with the revelation that the Dangote Foundation, to his knowledge, had also donated 30,000 bags of rice to Edo State government to the people as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Speaking in an interview with the Channels Television, Oshiomhole revealed, “And I saw the donation that Dangote Foundation as part of its corporate social responsibility gave about 30, 000 bags of rice to Edo State government. And I saw in those democratised distribution by the people, that those rice, the Dangote label were being covered by Edo State government. Whereas Dangote intention is not to do it in the name of government.” Until now, quite uncharacteristic of the Obaseki government, neither a press conference nor a formal statement has been adduced or produced.
The latest rice hoarding and stealing allegations is a stark reminder of similar past greedy acts by the Obaseki administration. In 2020, the Obaseki government was nabbed for hoarding COVID-19 food palliatives, resulting to the breaking and looting of illegal warehouses. Some of the citizens who chastised the government then are those defending the government today. Six years ago, the PDP accused Obaseki of diverting 4, 721 bags of rice out of 6, 822 bags given to Edo government for distribution to IDP camps. Only 2, 101 bags of rice were received at IDP camps. Furthermore, it has brought to fore a 1969 incidence at Eghosa Grammar School that sources disclosed involved the stealing of another student’s plate of rice by the antagonist. When these incidents are related to the attempt to covet returned artefacts of Benin Palace and attached grants evidenced by Obaseki and Ighodalo’s stubborn construction of an EMOWAA museum, the answer becomes glaring just as his history of rebellion against the throne.
Particularly, Edo State government and the PDP leaders have become dejected and overwhelmed by their endless self-inflicted challenges, “setbacks” and burdens. Not the least of these is the standing disqualification of Ighodalo for not only using a “manufactured” list of illegal delegates to win the PDP primary in February delivered in an earlier Federal High Court judgment but for also forging his voter’s card as the Court of Appeal reiterated yesterday, Monday, in another landmark judgment that dismissed his appeal against another Federal High Court judgment. Justice Patricia Ajuma Mahmoud, JCA, delivered the lead judgment in the case marked as: Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/629/2024.
In a statement, the Edo Legacy PDP Coalition Media, the media wing of PDP’s largest caucus under the leadership of the PDP National Vice Chairman, South South, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, hailed the Appeal Court’s judgment against Ighodalo, whom it described as the “illegal PDP gubernatorial candidate for the upcoming Edo 2024 gubernatorial election.”
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“In the light of the court’s ruling, the Edo Legacy PDP Coalition Media has called on the Inspector-General of Police to take immediate action by arresting Asue Ighodalo,” the statement demanded.
Expectedly, the news of the evening judgment sent the hordes of social media miscreants of the PDP and its campaign organisation into early sleep. The judgment also marked the painful continuation of the party’s media struggles and emasculated voice, in spite of its countless paid writers, commentators and content creators, highlighted in Ighodalo’s exclusive WhatsApp campaign platform chats by the Edo State Commissioner for Digital Economy, Science, and Technology, Ogbeide Ifaluyi-Isibor. In a tone of despair, dejection and desperation, a frustrated Mr. Isibor urged the PDP to declare a “state of emergency” with the establishment of a propaganda unit for the total deployment of propaganda to stem being “chewed” by the media machine of an APC that is purportedly reeling from national failures.
“We can no longer have Asue Campaign and PDP media campaign operating independently as I’m thinking they do now. This is injury time, we need a propaganda mill with strategic daily propaganda. Everyone can’t be pushing out same style of communication. We are not the underdogs in this fight.”
“Party will have to make funding available too, our guys don’t appear motivated and that’s a big deal. The APC are self motivated because they want power at all cost, we will have to strengthen out motivation too,” Ifaluyi-Isibor recommended even with his grammatical errors before admitting that “The last few days have not been too good for us. We’re responding late and being on the defensive.”
Notably, Ifaluyi-Isibor and two spokespersons for the muzzled Ighodalo Campaign Organization, Pharez Okpere and Ms. Rita Ebiuwa (also known as Ebiuwairo) are three of those who abused Obaseki for his past greed.
Indeed, while Okpebholo and the APC have continued to handle the PDP, Obaseki and Ighodalo’s lies with ‘eye-marked’ achievements like his resounding empowerment programme, it is doubtful if Isibor’s recommendation that has earned him the monicker of ‘Obaseki’s Commissioner for Propaganda’ can salvage the PDP floundering governorship campaign and sway voters’ rejection of Obaseki and Ighodalo, even if the Supreme Court eventually allows Ighodalo to contest against Okpebholo and others on 21st September, 2024.
…Sebastine EBHUOMHAN is an award-winning journalist and media consultant from Edo State, writing from Abuja. He can be reached on: usie007@yahoo.com or 08037204620.
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