The immediate past governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has denied the allegation that he left a debt of N600bn at the end of his tenure in November 2024.

Obaseki said that rather than engaging in guesswork, his successor, Governor Monday Okpebholo, should cross-check with the Debt Management Office (DMO) if Edo State drew a debt of N600bn.

The former governor, who spoke through his Media Adviser, Crusoe Osagie, said the lies being spewed by the Okpebholo’s administration “are giving the country a bad image.”

He added that no government at whatever level, whether local government, state government, or federal government, had the capacity to draw loans or enter into any debt arrangement without the knowledge and approval of the DMO.

Obaseki said certain statements from the Edo State Government gave the impression that the state was being governed “by people who don’t understand what it means to run a government.”

This was just as he declared as “false and outrightly out of place”, the comments made by the Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, on the Obaseki administration, adding that such comments rubbed off negatively on the President of the country and the country in general.

On the planned probe of Radisson Hotel, Obaseki noted that Radisson Hotel remained an international brand that entered into a business agreement with Edo State “with all T’s crossed and all I’s dotted.”

He insisted that every record about the transaction between Radisson Hotel and the Edo State Government was contained in the transition report his administration submitted to the incumbent governor.

According to him, “The Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) is an international investment drawing funds from the German Government, United Kingdom’s government, French Government for its development. You think such an investment will be put on a land that was not ceded to that organisation by the state.

“These people just come out there and toss all kinds of irresponsible information out there. At the end of the day, what happens is that all of these turn around to form the intelligence that gathered out of Nigeria by the international community.

“It makes these countries think that the country is a failed state and the place is not being governed.

“So, when comments like this begin to come out of a state like Edo, also governed by the All Progressive Congress, it gives credence to the attitude that we are receiving from foreign nations.

“Can you people kindly ask where that N600bn he is speaking about is recorded in the DMO office. If Obaseki took such loans or had such indebtedness, at least you can find it there in the DMO office. So, he just comes out and spews these lies and makes this statement. It gives the impression that the state is being governed by touts. It gives the impression that the state is being governed by people who don’t understand what it means to run government,” Obaseki submitted.

The former Edo governor added that: “With these blatant lies and irresponsible behaviour Afegbua is putting up, he thinks he is acting locally, but it this hooligan kind of behaviour being displayed before the media in a world that is a global village that gives the impression that Nigeria is a failed State governed by an incompetent gang.

“An aggregation of the likes of Afegbua across the country is what has put Nigeria in the firing line of the United States. If Okpebholo and his information commissioner really want to help the president, they need to adopt a more responsible and professional conduct, particularly when they are making public statements,” he further counselled. (Nigerian Tribune)