The Edo State Government has given a 72-hour ultimatum to Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the last election, and other PDP supporters, to return state-owned vehicles still in their possession.
This directive was issued by Kelly Okungbowa, Chairman of the Government Assets Recovery Committee, during a press briefing on Tuesday. The committee was recently established by Governor Monday Okpebholo to recover public assets, including vehicles, from private individuals unlawfully holding them.
Okungbowa revealed alarming details about vehicles belonging to Edo Line, a now-defunct state transport company. According to him, some of these vehicles were allegedly sold and later discovered in a spare parts market in Benin City.
He said “We want to use this medium to appeal to those people whose names have been mentioned, to please return those vehicles to the authorities, because they are not my property. Those vehicles are the property of the state government, for the Edo people. And we all know the cost of buying one vehicle. To buy a brand new Hilux costs you nothing less than N120 million. Where do they expect the governor to get that kind of money to purchase new vehicles?
“We want to appeal to them, especially the candidate of the PDP, Barrister Asue Ighodalo and his running mate. It is good for us to also advise them as a father and leader in the state, that they should do the right thing by returning those vehicles.
“It may interest you that those vehicles that have recovered- the governor has directed that we should reallocate them to the agencies, and we have done that.
“Mr governor went to Edo Line during the time of his electoral campaign. He said he would revamp Edo Line. When we got there, there was no vehicle. We got some information that those vehicles were taken from the Edo Line and sold. This morning, we got information, and we went to a place called Uwelo Spareparts. We discovered about 12 vehicles there. Six were movable, six were not movable. We have the video here.
“While we are appealing, the government will also decide on its own. We are not here to witch-hunt anybody. We are doing our job according to the law. It is not that we don’t know where some of them were kept. They took some of the vehicles to Lagos, Abuja, and Abeokuta. But we are appealing to them, and follow due process.”
The committee also listed the names of officials attached to the previous administration who are allegedly still in possession of government vehicles, and advised that such vehicles be returned within 72 hours.
“We are giving them another 72 hours to do the needful. If they fail to do it, then, we will do the needful,” he added.
