Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday described as
childish, mischievous and petty, criticisms by the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) over his administration’s plan to sell the Edo House in Lagos State.
Oshiomhole, who spoke at the Government House in Benin, said his
administration had perfected plan to sell the house with a view to use the proceeds
to build a five-star hotel and develop the proposed Benin Business District.
The governor flayed the past PDP governments for abandoning and
pushing the state to its current dilapidated status.
Oshiomhole said: “My mandate is not to develop Lagos State, my
mandate is to develop Edo State and, therefore, I have no apologies for those
who think that purely for political reasons, we should keep our largest asset
in Lagos to be wasting away. The responsibility of a governor is to think not
just about today, but about the future.
“For us, we decided to even advertise the sale. If it were the
PDP, they would not have even advertised it. The PDP government sold all kinds
of properties in GRA (without advertisement). Today, we don’t have any guest
house because those properties were sold. And none of those properties were
advertised. One of the PDP senators even acquired a land here for less than N1
million on a GRA land.
“That case is not yet closed. We are looking at it with a view
to recovering it. And if he wants to use it, we will put it on its market
value. If he can afford it, he takes it. But if he cannot, we confiscate it and
put it to public use.
“I think it makes more sense for Edo people to sell the house
and bring the investment down to Edo State, as well as use it as first of
preference to build a five-star hotel. If the money is not enough, we will use
it to start the construction and find other resources to complete it or do a
Public Private Partnership (PPP). Incidentally, during my last visit to Washington
about 10 days ago, I had a deal with the American overseas NEXIM Bank to fund
the construction of a hotel. If that comes to past, we expect to raise about
$250 million.
If we get that, we will get a five-star Marriot Hotel that will
forever change and make a bold statement about our tourist potential as a
state.
“So, since we cannot physically relocate the house in Lagos to
Benin, we will put it in the market and use the proceeds to develop Benin.”
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