Orbih also told Governor Obaseki to perish the thought of selling assets belonging to Edo Line.
At a press conference in Benin on Tuesday, where a 9-man committee to be chaired by Prophet Ojo Agge was inaugurated for grassroots mobilization in readiness for the 2019 general elections, Chief Orbih decried the sale of state assets including but not limited to the Ubiaja Rice Mill, a Rubber Processing Plant in Benin and the Oil Palm mill in Ekpoma at the Ekpoma Farm settlement.
These sales were done without following due process and in secrecy, the Edo PDP Chief noted.
Orbih revealed that the sale of Edo line had reached an advanced stage anding: “just like Edo people’s pressure stopped the illegal sale of Edo Broadcasting Service, the sale of Edo line would be stopped in same manner.”
He lamented the growth and success story of Delta line that got its initial takeoff funds and assets from Bendel line, “while Edo line was systematically killed so that the APC led government officials can lay their hands on the assets just like they have surreptitiously done on Edo line property located on commercial avenue in GRA Benin city.”
Chief Orbih also alleged that the government of Godwin Obaseki has used his celebrated farm program to defraud the state of over N500m.
He alleged that in Sobe, government cleared and prepared 1200 hectares, 400 hectares at Usugbenu and 800 hectares at Ekpoma with hundreds of millions of naira and there is no evidence that a single grain was planted or at least harvested.
“Even though the money for this exercise was not captured in the budget of the ministry of agriculture, the money was diverted from the special intervention funds and paid out from the ministry to Saro Agro Sciences, the purported technical partners for the project,” he further alleged.
Chief Orbih challenged EDSG to account for the hundreds of millions spent on land preparation; “how many tons of grains if any were sold from these agric projects and how much was realized from the sale?”
He also challenged government to disclose, and make to be published, the number of graduates that were employed in the agric empowerment program and their names
The PDP chairman disclosed that from investigation carried out, Saro Agro Sciences was a conduit pipe to siphon state resources and it is looking like the many foreign trips the governor has embarked on, to Malaysia, is to learn how to waste government money in unproductive Agric ventures.
