Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Two groups, Alliance for Collective Progress (ACP) and Edo State Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Good Governance and Internal Democracy, yesterday clashed over a report of judicial commission of inquiry which indicted the former governor Adams Oshiomhole administration over alleged breach of public procurement law.
Following the Justice James Oyomire Judicial Commission of Inquiry’s report presented to Governor Godwin Obaseki last week, ACP members, yesterday called on the Benin zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute the former governor and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Oshiomhole.
Bearing placards with various inscriptions, the protesters urged EFCC operatives to arrest and prosecute Oshiomhole for alleged failure to procure key equipment needed for operating the Edo Specialist Hospital built by his government and commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The group spokesman, Nehemiah Omogiate, expressed shock that all those involved in the alleged non-supply of the equipment were walking freely in the streets and therefore, called on the EFCC to arrest them.
Omogiate said: “We want to register our grievances over the multi-billion naira project, which four years ago, the past administration had claimed it had paid for the equipment.
“As we speak, the equipment have not been supplied and the person that collected the money is walking freely. There is a committee set up to investigate this and it has come out with its report and it indicted Oshiomhole, and up till now, the EFCC is yet to act. We are here to ask them to do their job, nobody is bigger than the law.”
Countering ACP position, members of the Edo State Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Good Governance and Internal Democracy, described as unfortunate, Govermor Obaseki’s desperation to humiliate Oshiomhole.
It said Obaseki’s action amounts to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
The coalition wondered why Obaseki failed to tell Edo people that the decision to pay the contractor 75 percent was taken by the state executive council which he (Obaseki) was the head of the economic team.