Why Benin/Abraka Road contract was reviewed upward thrice, Obaseki replies Okpebholo
2 min readFormer Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki has explained that the Benin/Abraka Road contract sum was reviewed upward thrice due to the galloping inflation caused by gross mismanagement of economy by the APC government at the center.
Obaseki stated this in response to an allegation by the Monday Okpebholo-led administration that his predecessor diverted money from the inflated contract to finance the governorsip election of Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 21 polls.
Okpebholo’s assets verification committee had on Thursday alleged that the contract sum for the 17.5-kilometer road project was inflated thrice from ₦8 billion to ₦16 billion by Obaseki thrice within a year.
But, Obaseki, in a statement by his media aide, Crusoe Osagie, described Okpebholo’s allegation as spurious and baseless.
According to him, the road contract was awarded around May 2023, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office.
“It is on record that immediately after the president took office, the removal of subsidy and the devaluation of the naira occurred, plummeting the naira and driving inflation up by over 300 percent.
“Between May and September 2023, the economy had experienced drastic price increases due to relentless inflation. The price of cement climbed from about N3000 to N15000, fuel jumped from about N190 to over N600 per litre, and a bag of rice which used to be about N23,000 rose to over N100,000. Other items including rods, sand, diesel, and even logistics and manpower skyrocketed astronomically.
“It shouldn’t therefore be surprising that the contract sum for the project, which was initially scheduled to commence in May but only began in September, had to be reviewed. It was revalued the first time because the inflation had just started and had to be reviewed again because the inflation was relentless,” he said.
The former Governor faulted the asset verification committee of “neglecting the fact that the galloping inflation occasioned by the gross mismanagement of the national economy by their own government at the centre was what was responsible for the review and increase in contract sum.”
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