TheCable

The Edo government has accused the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) of working “aggressively” to ensure the state remains underdeveloped.

In a statement on Friday, Crusoe Osagie, special adviser on media to Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, said the APC is bitter about the current progress of the Benin port project.

In November 2021, Obaseki launched a 30-year development project which included the Benin port for improved investment opportunities in the state.

Osagie said David Imuse, the APC chairman in the state, had noted that “Edo state was not in existence 75 years ago”.

He said Imuse and his party members should be ignored, adding that they have nothing to offer to the development of the state.

“We are quite perplexed to learn of the laughable and incredibly ridiculous comment by the APC chairman in Edo state, colonel David Imuse that there was no Nigeria or Edo State 75 years ago, in a desperate attempt to undermine the remarkable achievements of the governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration on the progress made with the Benin port project,” the statement reads.

“Colonel Imuse’s comment betrays the rank he parades from the Nigerian army, leaving many to wonder if he really earned it.

“His claim that Nigeria and Edo did not exist 75 years ago leaves even elementary school pupils to wonder and ask in what country their grandparents who are 75 years and above were born.

“The fact of the pre-independence and post-independence Nigeria is lost on Imuse whose only vocation these days is reactive opposition politics.

“Going by col Imuse’s line of thought, the great and then sovereign Benin Kingdom which traded with the Portuguese in the 14th century using the location of the Benin port must have carried out the well-documented transactions in space.

“Someone should draw Imuse’s attention to the western house of assembly and enlighten him about the over seven-decade-old documentation of efforts to get the Benin port on stream.

“Imuse should be told that opposition politics does not automatically translate to cynicism.

“The humongous victory of the Obaseki administration in making the Benin port vision come to pass is a win for Imuse even though his present politics of self-service does seem to becloud his sense of good judgment.

“Imuse’s tirade and baseless attacks on the governor and the progress with the Benin port project show that he and his paymasters in the APC do not understand the workings of governance and complexities involved in large-scale infrastructure projects, further exposing him as one who is backward, illiterate and uninformed.

“He should be ignored by Edo people, alongside his ilk as they offer no constructive input to the development and growth of Edo state.”