Members of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are angry.
Reason: While hundreds of thousands of indigenes of the state are wallowing in abject poverty, Governor Adams Oshiomhole has allocated N10.65 billion in the 2016 Budget to take care of himself.
Describing the budget as ‘A Budget of Misappropriation’, they told “all right-thinking Nigerians” to condemn Oshiomhole’s act “who rode on the back of the masses to become governor only now to turn around and subject them to mental torture”.
The state chairman of the party, Dan Orbih, revealed that the N10.65 billion “represents 9.6 per cent of the total budget of N111.50 billion”, wondering why an individual, pretending to be governing a state, could be so insensitive to the welfare of the people.
Orbih also accused Oshiomhole of voting N3.5 billion to the construction of the Accident and Emergency Ward unit at the Benin Central Hospital, adding that the hospital ward has become a conduit pipe used to siphon the resources of the state as funds had been allocated to the wards in the last two budgets.
Orbih stated that it was shocking that Oshiomhole slashed budgetary allocation to the office of the deputy governor from over N250 million to N35 million.
Lamenting that the state government neglected water provision and agriculture by appropriating N100 million and N300 million respectively to the two sectors, the party accused the governor of allocating N5 billion and N400 million to security and ICT respectively.
He said despite the sum of N150 million voted for the maintenance of the Benin Water Fountain located at the King’s Square in the 2015 budget, the fountain did not work, adding that N100 million has been voted for the same fountain in the 2016 budget.
He declared that the 2016 Edo State budget exposed the insensitivity of the state government to the plight of Edo people, adding that the budget was designed to impoverish the people of the state and improve the personal lots of the governor and his aides.
Orbih said in the face of dwindling revenue from the federation account, the governor has continued to live a lavish lifestyle, flying chartered flights that cost between N3.5 million and N4.5 million per trip for domestic flights to Iyamho, Abuja, Lagos and Benin.
“While Oshiomhole budgetted N10 million as medical treatment for senior citizens in the 18 councils of the state, he has been doling out N4 million to his aides in the name of medical treatment.
“Considering previous allocation to the Accident and Emergency ward at the Benin Central Hospital, the ward could go down in history as the most expensive hospital ward,” he said.
