Few weeks ago, the Publicity Secretary of the Edo PDP Caretaker Committee, Chris Nehikhare threatened to drag governor Monday Okpebholo to the ICPC over procurement issues as they relate to the first flyover the distinguished senator is planning to build.

When the news of PDP's threat broke, I laughed heartily with scorn.

I asked myself. So, the PDP is still unaware of the Urhobos's adage that 'no bi person when first reach police station day win case'

True talk!! Complainants lose too on the ground of the jurisprudence of the bench. This is what happened in the suit in the supreme court instituted by Obaseki and some state governors to scrap the EFCC. Why? Because the constitution was not diligently followed in establishing the anti- corruption agency.

Well, to cut the narrative short, the governors lost the suit. The supreme court's ruling is that it is not a treaty that birthed the EFCC but a convention which therefore does not require ratification by the 36 state assemblies.

The lesson here is that it is a mere noisy bacchus talk for the PDP to threaten the state governor with ICPC.

Secondly, the PDP in its pronouncement accused the APC administration of not following the procurement law in hastily awarding the overhead bridge contract at Ikpoba Hill to a Chinrse firm. I won't waste my positive energy on this PDP bureaucratic activities since what I am aware of today are caricature Obasekinized laws passed by a Yes-assembly not laws that reflect the true interests of Edo people.

Also, be informed that the ICPC does not enforce state laws. It is a federal agency that only tries persons who breach federal laws on financial and economic crimes.

My jurisprudence on the subject is easy to understand. For instance, recall that all the decisions of the ENDSARS Panels set up by the state governments were not binding on the federal government because a state government has no constitutional power to probe a federal agency.

So, Edo PDP you are only being an idle interloper in worrying yourself over the laudable flyover project at Ikpoba Hill, Benin.

In case the PDP does not know, Edo people now consider the party as Public Enemy No.1 for daring to speak ill of the flyover.

Now, let's face the brass tacks. See, the failed outgone PDP in Edo State lacks the equity to criticize the new administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo. Yes, what I am saying is that the PDP hands are unclean on the issue of public contract procurement. Therefore, it does not have the moral authority to pontificate on the matter.

Last week, for instance, the Edo State Government set up an asset recovery committee chaired by Mr Kelvin Okungbowa following discovery that some members of the PDP/ Obaseki-led administration left office with over 200 vehicles.

Hmmm, within twenty-four hours three of the stolen vehicles were found in the private residence of a PDP crony of Obaseki. As if this is not enough, one of the vehicles had about 100 bags of undistributed palliative garri and rice.

This finding is only a tip of the sordid corruption in the past anti-people Obaseki government. Don't forget that during the 2020 ENDSARS protest in Benin palliatives were uncovered by protesters when they broke into a government warehouse in Benin City.

Incredible!! Edo people are impoverished by Covid-19 in 2020 and subsidy hunger in 2024. Yet the sluggish and uncaring PDP kept food away from the hungry people. Now the party is shamelessly attacking the smart, empathic APC administration bringing succour to the people. And the PDP is crying wolf when there is none in sight. Foul!!

Let us now go back to the days of British colonialism in Nigeria under Lord Lugard.

Recollect that it was his madam, Ms Flora Shaw, he hired without public bidding to formulate the name NIGERIA for us.

Similarly under the duo of PDP and Obaseki the people of Edo State were recolonized. Mrs Betsy Obaseki emerged as our modern-day Flora Shaw. It is in this capacity former Governor Godwin Obaseki gave her the contract to manufacture an anthem for Edo Stste. Tell me what a BOI banker like her has to do with the music industry. Well, for puritanical and self-righteous former Governor Godwin Obaseki, government business is a family one.

So, neither the PDP or Obaseki has the moral locus to criticise the contracts of the APC administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo. Physician, heal thyself!

let us not be in a hurry to forget that the PDP and Obaseki during their tenure were more fixated with the braggadocio of MOUs and procurement processes than really implementing them to the latter. Invariably, the administration only openly showcased MOUs and processes of procurement as window dressings. Nothing more. Hence, after eight years, there is little achievement from them.

Imagine, despite all the public noise about MOUs and procurement processes, Obaseki left us with bad , half-completed, unexecuted and abandoned projects.

Only the blind cannot see that Obaseki's MOUs and procurement practices left us with:

■ Rehabilitated or constructed delayed roads that go bad when the contractor is still on site.

■ Golf Ròad that has no gutter to drain off water during the rainy season. Yet the road leads to Government House, Benin.

■ Uncompleted Ekenwan Road, after five years,which is a passage way to abandoned Gelegele River Port.

■ The neglectrd Benin-Abraka Road a major arterial link between Edo and Delta States.

On several occasions, there is so much media fanfare about project MOUs and procurement acts. But in the end, the projects remain on the dusty shelf. Not delivered!! Of interest here are the jinxed Gelegele River Port, Benin Industrial and Enterprise Park, Dry Port as well as the Foton CNG Assembly Plant projects.

How about MOUs and procurement procedures sharp practices of the PDP administration of Obaseki. You can sniff them in most projects. A crab hardly walks straight.

If you hear how the bids for Jara Supermarket and Shoprite were secured, you will feel pains
for Edo State.

Also, it is worrying to listen to other 'allegations' of malpractices surrounding the bidding for the N1.875 billion forward military operating base at Ehor to help secure the Auchi-Benin Road axis from criminals including kidnappers.
Behold, here are much more skeletons in the dark cupboard of the Obaseki government.

The PDP administration of Obaseki informed Edo people that it was spending over N40 billion annually on paying civil srrvants in the state. But at no time did it place in the public domain how it secured, through competitive bidding, the shady services of consultants it appointed to 'rebrand' the civil service. Neither did the former governor tell Edo people details of how it got unsupervised fraudulent contractors to sites. All the people are told at some sites are rickety sign boards proclaiming:'Your Tax Is Working For You'.

Too true, the dishonest ploy of awarding non transparent contracts by the Obadeki government began during his first tenure.

For instance, deploying sureptitious MOUs and procurement transactions, the Obaseki administration gave out contracts to cronies. That is how between 2016 and 2021, his government got the contactors that he claimed renovated 2682 and constructed 204 classrooms: laid 105,725 floor tiles: installed 123,152 square meters of roofing: supplied 30,256 units of furniture, built 32 fences : as well as provided 76 generators, 95 boreholes and 1,119 toilets under the EDOBEST Programme.

You can now see that the PDP administration of Obaseki is so pathologically fixated about its ditty contract bidding process that it is blind to the reality that the APC is capable of open, transparent and competitive MOU contracts.

On a final note, Chinua Achebe in his epic novel 'Things Fall Apart' tells us that old women are always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a parable. In the same vein, Obaseki chokes in jealousy whenever the new APC government of Governor Monday Okpebholo is hitting the ground running to quickly address the massive corrupt inanities of the failed Obaseki administration.

Indeed, Obaseki romanced corruption during his tenure.

Another startling evidence. In May 2023, all the 18 local governments under his tutelage only brought in N3m as internally generated revenue. Yet the Oredo council alone is capable of generating a monthly average revenue of N100m.

Philip Shaibu, the then deputy governor of Edo State was so shocked by the 18 local government's revenue performance that he threatened to invite the EFCC to probe the councils.

Due to fear of the EFCC may be, all the 18 councils internally generated revenue in the following month of June 2023 jumped to N127m implying that a whopping sum of N124m was stolen in May 2023 alone. When it was discovered that angry Shaibu's expectation of N500m had still not been met and his EFCC's threat still subsisted, Obaseki brought the revenue collection of the councils under his purview. Certainly only a corrupt man and party can endorse such monumental corruption, bleeding the councils to financial death.

Moreover, recall that before the N3m revenue fraud, elected council officials left a staggering debt of N10 billion which Obaseki announced was suspiciously incurred by the councils under his watch. He vowed to probe the scandal.

Thereafter, nothing was heard of the issue. Deafening graveyard silence!!!!

Can't you see what I mean? Metaphorically, the past PDP administration of Obaseki only parades debit morality and mutilated equity which robs it of the licence to criticize the new government of APC in Edo State working tirelessly to correct the PDP's serial errors of misgovernance of eight years.

All the drowning PDP is doing today is seeking to stay afloat by clutching at the paper straw relevance of critic relevance . Trust, it will again fail in this mission. No mortal or political party can stand in the way of the moving train of the APC train of glorious restoration of Edo people's birthright stolen by Obaseki and his PDP henchmen. None!!.