By Jethro Ibileke
The Edo State Government has lined up activities to mark the 365 days of Governor Monday Okpebholo in office with the commissioning critical projects across the three senatorial districts.
The State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, disclosed this on Monday in Benin, while briefing journalists on activities outlined to mark the one-year anniversary of Governor Monday Okpebholo in office.
He explained that the activities will commence on November 7 with project tours by dignitaries from within and outside the state, commissioning of projects and will be rounded up with a colloquium on November 12.
Afegbua, who stated that the present administration inherited rot and infrastructural decay from the immediate past administration of Godwin Obaseki, explained that Governor Okpebholo has successfully panelbited the accidented vehicle of the state and put it back on the road.
“The present administration came on stream on the 12th of November 2024. By this year, November 12th, 2025, we will be marking its one year in office.
“What we intend to do, to cut costs, we essentially will do commissioning of projects across the three senatorial districts. Projects in the area of healthcare delivery, projects in the area of education, projects in the area of road reconstruction, and projects in the area of agricultural intervention.
“We are hoping to start going around the state, maybe from 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th. We’ll be going around the senatorial districts to commission specific projects.
“If we pretend that we didn’t inherit rots and decay in infrastructure, we will not be doing justice to our historical antecedent.
“I can tell you without any fear of favor that the Edo Accidental Vehicle is being gradually fixed by Governor Okpebholo, and the vehicle has bounced back to the road again,” he said.
According to the Commissioner, projects to be commissioned include reconstructed public schools and primary health centers across the state.
He said: “We are happy that across the entire state we have about 60 to 63 schools receiving attention as part of the first phase intervention. More than half of them have been completed, part of which we will be commissioning.
“We also have a lot of primary health care centers, about 60 of them, that we have recovered. We have also put them to good use. Our general hospitals that were in shambles before now are receiving serious attention, trying to repackage them.”
Other achievements of the Okpebholo administration mentioned by Afegbua include the following:
Employment
“The teacher population has been abysmally low. We have integrated 5,000 teachers into the Edo civil service. We have also integrated 500 civil servants to fill up vacant positions and re-energize, overhaul and re-tool the Edo Civil Service. We thank God that we have come very strongly to inject new blood into that system.”
Security.
He explained that Governor Okpebholo has done so much in the security sector, with the donation of over 60 Hilux buses to security agencies, 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 recruitment of 2,500 men and women into the Edo security corps.
“That means essentially we have men who will assist in collaborating with the police in information gathering, and also deepening community policing.
“We are also discussing with the states that we share common boundaries with, with a view to ensuring that there is some level of collaboration in the way we respond to the security crisis in Edo State.
The Commissioner disclosed that the government has also done so much in the area of agriculture.
“There are existing rice plantations in the state. The governor has also taken a pilot project of planting maize in 400 acres of land. He went there last week to see for himself, and he saw that the maize was ready for harvest.
“Those maize that will be harvested will be sold. Some of them will be kept in silos for the benefit of those end-users who are around to buy them from producers. We are on the side of practical governance, what you can see visibly,” he said.
Looking ahead, Afegbua disclosed that Governor Okpebholo is determined to bring governance to bear, to turn the fortune of the state for the better and for the benefit of the residents.
“We may not have provided answers to all the crises. But we have a very strong political will to take actions, particularly on the issue of cultism.
“We will not relent in our efforts to fix our roads, fix our decayed infrastructure in the area of education, and fix the human capital development that was taken over by foreign consultants who have since eloped from the state.
“We are very resolute, driven by a very strong political will to confront the challenges before us. It has not been rosy, but we thank God we have brought the vehicle from the mechanical shop now on the road. We are test-driving it,” he concluded.
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