The conflict of confidence in the Edo State Transition Committee set up by the administration of the outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki to midwife a smooth transition of power to the governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo, deepened on Wednesday as the Edo State Government warned that it would not sit down as a school pupil to answer posers from the 24-man All Progressives Congress transition committee.
This was just as the APC members of the joint committee failed to show up for the second day running at the venue of the committee’s joint sitting.
The absence of the APC members notwithstanding, the government side, led by the Secretary to the Edo State Government (SSG), Joseph Eboigbe, said that all political appointees serving as members of the committee would cease to function as from October 30, 2024, by which time it would have submitted its report to the governor who instituted the committee in July 2024.
Addressing a press conference at the John Odigie-Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA), venue of the joint meeting, Chris Nehikhare, the State Commissioner of Communication and Orientation, said that the APC needed to understand that the mandate of the transition committee did not extend to inquisition into the finances of the government as all the details would be contained in the handover note that governor Obaseki would give to the governor-elect on November 12, when Okpebholo would assume office.
Nehikhare, who expressed surprise at the attitude of the APC members, said that while the APC reserved the right to attend or stay off the joint sitting, the government side would not be deterred as it would submit its report on or before the October 30 deadline, adding that afterwards, the civil servant would be available to answer any enquiry as all political appointees would have ceased to be members of the committee.
Explaining what led to the deadlock, the commissioner explained that at the inauguration of the joint committee on Friday last week, “our brothers from the APC requested the documents and we supplied them with the soft copies.
“They later turned around to ask for hard copies and we made 24 copies of the five-dimensional approach each to them. They went ahead to say that they are now 27 instead of 24, and we went ahead to make an extra three copies each. It was after that that they started asking for other items.”
Nehikhare explained that the APC needed to realise that “until November 12, 2024, Governor Obaseki remains the governor of Edo State, and the Edo State Government will not take orders from anybody.
“This is a transition committee and not a negotiation committee. Our brothers from the other side need to understand this. When we took over in 2016, we never had the privilege of these documents we are giving them. The APC has never organised any transition before. This is the first time this type of transition is happening, and we are doing this because we believe that there should be a smooth transition of power. So, they need to know that a transition committee is not an in-coming government. They are a transition committee and not inquisitors.
“We will not oblige them with any financial documents, as we have that on the e-governance platform. The problem they have is that they are overwhelmed by the volume of work we have done and documented. They were the ones who said that we did not do anything. Now, we have given them all that we have done and what is ongoing. Governor Obaseki will give details of all financial transactions in his handover note to the governor-elect.
“There is no constitutional requirement that says we must have a transition committee. But we chose to have it, the first of its kind, because we want a smooth transition of power as it is done in the civilised world. If they choose not to show up, they have the right. But before or on October 30, we will submit our report to the appointing authority who set up the committee.” Nehikhare reiterated.
He reassured that the state government was committed to a smooth transition of power, adding that for all the documents prepared, “we have all the data and information to back them up. We have nothing to add. More than 90 per cent of all they asked for in their 24-point demand are in the documents prepared for them. The rest are detailed in the handover note of Governor Obaseki.”
The APC, it would be recalled, had stayed away from the joint sitting of the committee, insisting that it would only resume sitting if supplied with some “vital documents”, as the ones forwarded to the party by the state government were details of the projects executed by the government.
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