Edo councilors petition Obaseki, accuse chairman of fraud

Councillors in Esan North East local government area of Edo state have accused the council chairman, Augustine Okoibhole, of allegedly being involved in corruption.

The also accused Okoibhole of abuse of office and disregard to traditional institutions.

Nine out of 11councillors in the petition sent to Governor Godwin Obaseki alleged that the chairman operates multiple accounts in the name of the council as against a single account policy of the state and federal governments.

Their spokesman Iluobe Christina also alleged that the chairman has not been able to account for a N13,348,000 remitted to the account of the council by the revenue verification committee as well as another sum of N144 million realised as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last 16 months.

They also alleged that the chairman has not been able to account for the N116,350,894 Paris Club refund made by the federal government.

However, in his response, Okoibhole denied all the allegations.

He said: “The new Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) directive gives us room to operate three accounts and that is what we are doing, we are operating three accounts.

“We have been paying salaries, I have done many projects, I have built a livestock market and constructed drainages. All these monies did not come from my personal pocket but from the money that accrued to the council.”

He said what he has done was far more than N144 million that they are accusing him of misappropriating adding that the council’s monthly wage bill is over N30m and he had been paying salary in the last 25 months.

On the Paris Club refund, he said acted as directed by the state governor to pay salary arrears

“We were owing eight months and now we are owing only two-and-half months which means I have paid five and a half months.”