According to Mr. Fred Itua, the spokesperson for Governor Monday Okpebholo, Edo State’s local administration councils have been giving the People Democratic Party (PDP) vital support, particularly by financing the party’s legal actions against the state administration.
Itua claimed that the state’s councils under the previous PDP-led government had strayed from their primary duties and instead engaged in vote-buying, intimidating political rivals, and embezzlement of funds.
Edotoday notes that the PDP and Dr. Asue Ighodalo, its candidate for the governorship election in Edo State on September 21, are contesting Governor Monday Okpebholo’s win at the polls. Yet the 18 local government councils in the state remains under the firm control of the PDP.
The governor’s spokesman made the disclosure in an article titled: “Matters of Bitterness versus Okpebholo’s Increasing Trust in Edo State”.
He noted: “One of the core values of Governor Okpebholo’s administration is that workers’ salaries and emoluments must be prioritised and non-negotiable.
“And predictably, the PDP vehemently protested the Governor’s demand for transparency, preferring the councils to remain its life support, especially in funding their court cases against the Government.
“The local government councils were already weighed down by the huge spending on court cases and party leaders, such that they got little or nothing for their primary duties like salaries,” Itua added.
Continuing, the governor’s spokesman said though the PDP has the right to criticism, he cautioned that such criticism must be constructive and devoid of fallacies and misrepresentations.
He alleged that the PDP in Edo state has adopted a strategy of sabotage after its crushing defeat in the 2024 governorship election.
