The Edo State Government on Wednesday said the outgoing governor, Godwin Obaseki, will present a detailed handover note to the incoming government of Senator Monday Okpebholo despite the boycotting of the joint transition committees’ meeting by the team of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
DAILY POST reports that the Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, stated this at a press briefing in Benin City.
According to him, the incoming governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, will receive a detailed handover note from Governor Godwin Obaseki.
“Also on the e-governance platform, which is in the office of the governor, all financial transactions, all bank statements, all last financial accounts, and every single thing is accessible on e-governance in the office of the governor dashboard.
“This is the first time a government will be transiting from one political party to another in the state. So, I don’t think any APC government has ever done this in the state. They are now assuming a new role of being an inquisitor. We will not allow them to be an inquisitor. The transition committee is not the incoming governor.
“They are just committee whose duty it is to come and verify projects and verify what we have done. That is the standard practice all over the world,” he said.
He added that 90 per cent of what the APC committee is asking for is all contained in the documents presented to them.
The commissioner who said the outgoing governor, Obaseki, would only hand over to the governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo, noted that the duty of the transition is to only verify the documents and data presented to them and not to assume the position of the governor.
He said the state government asked the APC and the governor-elect for a list of its transition committee because it was a civilised thing to do when an outgoing government is leaving power to hand over to the incoming government.
“When you are handing over power, it is not just the instrumentality of power but everything you have done while you are in office, to showcase to the incoming government what you have done, for it to have an idea of the achievements and, at times, the challenges the government faced while it was in power.
“They refused to look at the documents and the projects we had done because they were overwhelmed with documentation, pictures, facts and data. Instead of them facing the issue of transiting, they turned to the issue of inquisitor.
“They are asking questions that only a chief executive can pass on to the next chief executive. Everything they have asked for, we have them in all the documents we are presenting to them. They listed 24 items they want us to attend to as if they are the ones dictating to the transition team.
“Edo State government does not take orders or instructions from members they brought in to come and do transition committee work,” he added.
DAILY POST recalls that APC transition committee members on Tuesday said they would be boycotting the joint meeting of the committee if the Edo State did not provide it with the documents demanded from it.
The spokesperson of the committee, Patrick Ikhariale, also urged the state government team to make documents available to it 24 hours before the sitting time so that they would have the opportunity to read through the documents.