The federal government has indicted Governor Godwin Obaseki, accusing him of fuelling #EndBadGovernance
protests against hunger in some parts of the State, including the King square in Benin City that was widely attended by residents of the State.
The Minister of Nigeria Delta Development,
Abubakar Momoh made the allegation on Tuesday Channels Television ‘morning brief’.
He wondered why some Governors had to hoard and divert federal government palliatives that were given to States to reduce hunger in addition to allocations that were shared among the three tiers of Governments — Federal, States and LGAs, since the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, May 2023.
The Minister said, “People broke into houses and brought out food. For instance, my State Governor had his own. I can state clearly that there are some State Governors who are engineering these protests. The Governor of Edo State recently, was the one that organized people at the King square; He addressed them. At the end of the day, he said, ‘ I am going to carry your message to the federal government, that is Abuja’. We are talking about #EndBadGovernance protests; The impression he (Obaseki) is giving us that bad governance is at the doorstep of the federal government.
“Whereas the resources of this Country is being shared among the three tiers of Government. We should expect such a person to address such a problem (hunger) in Edo State. How many roads has he been able to build? How many erosion problems has been able to solve. Rather, if the federal government brings relief, he will rebag them and put Edo State government name.
“We saw that during Civid-19. That is the same thing that is happening today.
“We saw some Governors elsewhere distributing federal government relief materials.
In a swift reaction, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media, Crusoe Osagie said the is out of touch with reality.
He stated that Momoh has no facts about food programme, and accused him of attempting to mislead the public on the State Government’s feeding programme.
The claims by the Minister that the bags of rice allocated to the State by the Federal Government were rebagged and distributed by the state government is completely false and malicious.
Osagie recalled that the State government had in March, 2024 designed a feeding programme that was implemented through religious institutions in the State with over N2.2bn released to Christian and Muslim bodies to implement the programme, which has been very successful.
The statement said,“The attention of the Edo State Government has been drawn to comments by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Engr. Abubakar Momoh, in which he attempted to mislead the public about the State Government’s feeding programme.
“The State would like to place on record that the reference made by the Minister that the bags of rice allocated to the state government by the Federal Government were rebagged and distributed by the state government is completely false and malicious.
“The case of looted bags of rice referenced by the Minister has been put to rest by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), who have explained that it was an incident at the residence of one of its vendors.
“But unfortunately, the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose propaganda the Minister appears to echo in his interview on national television, seems to have an axe to grind with the Christian umbrella body”, according to him.
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