•Governor Okpebholo of Edo State
Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has said that Governor Monday Okpebholo is poised to tackle the issue of security in the state with all the seriousness it deserves.
Afegbua who stated this while addressing journalists in Benin, said when the governor came on stream, the first thing he did was to buy over 60 Hilux buses to assist the police, civil defence including the military for their mobility and logistics to combat crime and criminalities, reports Daily Independent.
According to him, in doing that, he was conscious of the fact that for us to have an effective policing system, mobility is very key in getting people to locations where these crimes are committed or as a preventive measure to the outbreak of insecurity.
“We are happy that our intervention in that aspect is yielding fruits. We have not gotten to the climax of that but we can boldly say that we have impacted so positively in the area of security.
“Only three weeks ago, the Governor delivered 400 motor cycles to the police, civil defense and the DSS to help mobility to places that are very rural for which getting there by vehicle would prove very difficult, and the urgency of intervention also requires some urgency in movement.
The commissioner also pointed out that “We have seen how the military, police and civil defense have reached out to kidnap victims without too much time wasted in the process.
“So, we are happy that all of these interventions are working, we have improved the allocation we are giving to them, we have also improved the number of meetings we host, and as a result of having constant touch with security agencies, the Governor has created a Ministry of Public Security Office.
“The Office of Security and Safety, led by former Deputy Speaker, who will be having a lot of interface with security agencies, with a view to getting timely solutions to issues when they come up.
“I want to make this point, particularly in the area of security, that please, people who do not understand how these issues work, issues of kidnapping and all of that.
“They should please keep their mouth shut, because oftentimes, you see, television anchors discuss kidnapping issues of a particular individual on television, compounding even the process of seeking their release, in the name of trying to report kidnappings across the state.
“We want to plead with them that when people are kidnapped, the less noise you make about it, the easier it is to secure their release.
“The moment you place too much premium on the release of those victims, the kidnappers will have an idea, of who this person is, so important, so we need to increase the ransom.
“So people must understand the operative environment, the dynamics, and the psyche of the kidnapper when dealing with his victims. We are thankful that we have a very responsive police force in the Edo State and the Director of the DSS, they have been doing wonderfully well.
“They respond very sharply, coupled with the Special Advisers to the Governor on Security and a couple of others, the CSO to the government house, all of these persons, they are very honest and always on ground to offer services that will checkmate businesses of kidnappers”, he declared
Afegbua also described the much publicised Edo-Best education programme of the immediate past administration of Godwin Obaseki as “conduit pipe” to defraud the state through consultancy.
Afegbua said Edo-Best education initiative of Obaseki government was a complete fraud where N160 million was being paid every month to their consultants from 2018 up to the time that the government exited power in 2024.
According to the commissioner, “When we came on board and we were hearing something like a Edo Best, we thought our schools have been properly fixed and that Edo Best initiative was what we needed to ensure full compliance with contemporary requirements for the education of our people.
“In trying to understudy what we met on ground as Edo-Best education initiative, we thought the challenge in the education sector would not be much but we were wrong.
“Edo Best was only a conduit pipe by the previous government to defraud the state as they were paying N160 million every month to their consultants from 2018 up to the time that the government exited power in 2024.
“And what were they paying for, the consultants said they were writing similar lesson notes and there were tablets that they built application so that every teacher would key into that and that would just be a seamless translation to teaching in the classroom.
“But where were the classrooms? Apart from the deliberate intervention of the Oshiomhole administration in the name of Red Roof Revolution, we haven’t seen any tangible intervention in terms of reclaiming the schools in Edo State.
“Right inside Benin here, there are schools without windows, schools without chairs and tables, schools without teachers. Thank God that the Governor has commenced reclaiming those schools, one of which is the Army Day Secondary school which he built within eight weeks when they went on holiday.
“He bought chairs and tables and rebranded the entire school, fenced the entire compound to assume almost a brand new structure. We are happy that across the entire state we have about 60 to 63 schools receiving attention as part of the first phase intervention.
“On the teachers, the teachers’ population we met has been abysmally low and we have to integrate 5,000 teachers into the Edo civil service” he said.
