Igbinedion is on His Own, Says Osunbor

Edo State Governor, Oserhiemen Osunbor has said his government has no hand in the travails of the former governor of the state, Chief Lucky Igbinedion.
He said the former governor "is on his own" in his present predicament with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

Osunbor, who attended the stakeholders meeting on the Electoral Process in Nigeria presided by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua told State House correspondents at a break-time chat that the former governor’s tenure put the state in a debt of N20 billion. He indicated that if approached by the EFCC to assist in the investigations he would do so.
“I did not play any role in Igbinedion’s calamity. I didn’t put him in his present predicament and I have not played any role”, while noting that if approached by the commission to assist in investigation he would elect to assist the commission.
“That is hypothetical. If I am not approached I wouldn’t”.On whether he was disturbed by the sitting of the state elections tribunal, he said he was not bothered.
“No not at all. I just told you that PDP is the party on ground in Edo State and if out of 24 seats in House of Assembly PDP won 16 and AC won 8 and that elections took place simultaneously with the governorship elections then you can assess for yourself even without being a lawyer about the outcome of the April 14, 2007 elections. So no shaking,” he said.

The Governor said though the people had high level of expectations from 1999 to 2007 and the administration in place at that time made a modest effort that fell short of the expectations of the people.
He said he brought to the office of Governor a track record of achievement, performance and excellence in his previous endeavours.
“This is what I sold to the electorates, they believed in me and in spite of the reservations that some people had we were victorious in that elections".
“Knowing the high level of renewed hope and expectations by the people I wasted no time in getting down to the business of governance knowing fully well the essence of governance is that the people expect to see development, see good leadership because with good leadership people can follow and you can get a lot more done."
"I am happy that these past seven months or so that there is no questions in the minds of the people of Edo that we mean business and we are ready to bring about the fast rate of development of infrastructure which had unfortunately fallen into a state of decay and disrepair these past few years".
"We are beginning to put them right and there is renewed confidence in the democratic process and institutions and I promised the people of Edo State that every opportunity such as this that we will strive to do more so that the confidence they reposed in me in electing me as their governor is not misplaced".On the allegations that PDP in Edo state was involved in the rigging and killing during the Local Government elections. Osunbor stressed that as the dominant party in Edo State and having a comfortable two-thirds majority in the State House of Assembly as well as occupying the highest office, the PDP could not have rigged the elections.“PDP is the party on the ground in the state but unfortunately, the opposition party in the state which is AC strive on propaganda and I am sure you know why because they are people in the AC that have lived using propaganda all their working life. They have a great advantage over PDP in the area of propaganda but the reality is that PDP is the party on ground."
" Since I came on board the party has been waxing stronger and stronger and like I said those who had reservations particularly in the metropolis Benin City have nearly 100 per cent changed their minds, nearly all of them have returned to the PDP fold".“So we went into the LGA elections with high level of optimism, high level of moral, high level of preparations and this is very important. While the PDP was campaigning as we always do to win the hearts of voters and to win their votes, the opposition essentially the AC went to court and tried to prevent us from holding elections".

"They instituted not less than five cases against us in court and these were reported. They even went to court appeal and the case was dismissed because it lacked merit. Some of the allegations that they had were that the State Independent Electoral Commission was not properly constituted. But I am sure you have read how on three different occasions the court had dismissed attempts by people to have SIEC as constituted nullified because the courts believed that we acted in accordance with the provision of establishing SIEC".
" So the AC tried by all means to ensure we did not have the elections but when by December 14th the court of appeal dismissed their applications to have the elections stopped they were left with no option than to turn to violence as they had planned as their fall back position"."I am not aware that any death was recorded during the LG elections. Yes buildings were burnt but I am not aware anybody died”.On the present financial state of the state, the governor said the state government was determined to step up its internally generated revenue to N8-billion every month to be able to finance most the projects initiated by his administration within a period of four years.He also said the state government was projecting N60-billion internally generated revenue for the 2008 fiscal year.