The Governor of Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, has ordered the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last governorship election in the state, Asue Ighodalo and other supporters of the party, to return government vehicles in their possession.
This was made known by the Chairman, Government Assets Recovery Committee of the state, Kelly Okungbowa, on Tuesday.
He stated that the concerned individuals have been given a 72 hour ultimatum to return the vehicles, stating that some some of the vehicles belonging to the moribund government transport company, Edo Line were allegedly sold and have been discovered in a spare parts market in Benin City, the Edo state capital.
He stated, “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.”
Recall that Okpebholo set up an assets recovery committee to recover government assets including vehicles still in the hands of private individuals.
