Edo Assembly Ad hoc committees direct Governor Okpebholo to take over MOWAA, Radisson Blu Hotel

By Jethro Ibileke 

 

The Edo State House of Assembly Ad hoc Committee on the Musuem for West African Arts (MOWAA) has said that the Edo State government funded the entire project.

The Chairman of the committee, Addeh Isibor, who disclosed this on Tuesday while officially releasing the committee’s findings, also asked Governor Monday Okpebholo to take possession of the entire premises on which MOWAA is built.

He said claims by MOWAA’s management that it raised ₦37 billion were in direct contrast to MOWAA’s audited financial statement.

He disclosed that the property remained the property of the Central Hospital because it was never revoked.

“The Edo State Government should immediately take all steps to put the property to good use in the best and overriding public interest of the people,” he said.

Also giving the findings of his committee, the Chairman of the ad hoc committee on Radisson Blu Hotel, Ibhamawu Aigbokhan, said the committee recommended total control of the Radisson Hotel because it did not receive a kobo for the Hotel.

He said the title to the Hotel was never transferred from the Edo State Government to either the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) or the Hospitality Investment and Management Company (HIMC).

Aigbokhan disclosed that Obaseki did not inform the Assembly when he wanted to transfer ownership of the Radisson Hotel to the Hospitality Investments and Management Company (HIMC), even when the Assembly gave approval for ₦2 billion to be used to purchase the hotel.

According to him, “That the Edo State Government should contract competent hands to complete the renovation of the Hotel and take all steps to put the Hotel to use for the benefit of the good people of Edo State in particular and the world in general.

“The Edo State Government should immediately revoke the fraudulent Certificate of Occupancy to the property issued in the name of Hospitality Investment and Management Company Limited and revert the same to the Edo State Government that purchased the property.

“That the Edo State Government initiate legal action and work with relevant Anti-graft Agencies to retrieve the balance of the Hundred Million Naira Seventeen Billion, Five (N17,500,000,000.00) Bond proceeds still in the possession of the Escrow Agents, Meristem Trustees Limited and Emerging Africa Trustees Limited.”

Both committees however, said that the probe into ownership of the two projects was not to victimise former Governor Godwin Obaseki.