Stella Obasanjo Hospital: PDP Blasts Okpebholo For Attacking Obaseki
On Wednesday, Edo State’s opposition Peoples Democratic Party attacked Governor Monday Okpebholo and his Health Commissioner, Dr. Cyril Adam Oshiomhole, for allegedly claiming that Godwin Obaseki, the immediate past governor, had performed subpar work on the newly opened Stella Obasanjo Hospital in Benin.
At the end of Obaseki’s term, on November 6, 2024, former President Olusegun Obasanjo opened the 270-bed hospital with great ceremony.
The Obaseki administration refurbished and extended the hospital, which bears the name of Stella, the former president’s wife, and is located on Country Home Road, off Sapele Road in Benin City.
When Dr. Cyril Adam Oshiomhole inspected the hospital after taking office as Commissioner for Health, he found “construction errors.”
The governor visited on Tuesday night and called the previous administration’s hospital inauguration a farce.
He stated that equipment had not yet been acquired and that construction was still going on at the facility. He promised to fix the hospital’s structural flaws so that it could better serve the public.
But Obaseki kicked, complaining about the constant use of unfounded accusations, lies, and falsehoods to undermine and damage his reputation.
In order to divert attention from its ignorance and lack of goals for the state’s development, he characterized the new administration’s efforts as diversionary tactics.
Okpebhole, speaking when he inspected the facilities alongside the Deputy Governor, Dennis Idahosa; and Dr Oshiomhole, noted: “After inspecting the facilities, it is clear that nothing was done here by the Obaseki-led administration as they just painted the building and fixed air conditioners to deceive the people to think the building was completed.
“This is a sham. Construction was ongoing when he inaugurated the building. This is unacceptable. It is unfair. It is cheating on Edo people.
“We will come back again to talk with the contractor and see how to commission it for the use of Edo people.”
Dr Oshiomhole, who took the governor around the facilities, said the contractor had a lot of explanations to make regarding the project.
“The governor has gone round to see the work and we have a lot of talking to do with the consultant and contractor because we thought that by now, the work would have been almost ready.
“This building was inaugurated by the last administration politically, but coming here, it is like an abandoned building on the other side. A lot of explanations need to be made at this point.
“I came here with a team of doctors, surgeons and other medical experts so that they will have their input and there were some structural defects we saw. We alerted the contractor and he promised to correct those errors.”
But defending Obaseki, the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party said Okpebholo and Oshiomhole lacked the moral grounds to speak on standards of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital or any other hospital in the state.
In a statement by the Publicity Secretary of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Chris Nehikhare, the party said it was ironic and laughable that Cyril, whose father, Adams Oshiomhole, had overseen the flawed construction of the specialist hospital as governor — a project in which a section collapsed due to structural defects, killing two innocent citizens — would speak on the standards of any hospital.
“We are appalled and utterly disappointed by the petty, infantile and ignoble behaviour of the Monday Okpebholo-led administration in attempting to diminish the undeniable impact of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital on the state’s healthcare system.
“It is widely acknowledged by anyone who has visited or used the hospital that it ranks as one of the best in the South-South region, if not the entire country and this was made possible by the huge investment made by the immediate-past government of Godwin Obaseki, in upgrading and equipping the hospital to world-class standards.
“We are not surprised by the childish criticism coming from a clueless and incompetent government.
“Had they been discerning, they would have known that it is to the credit of the state and its government that a hospital of such significance and impact is located in the state and would not have desperately sought to diminish this for petty political reasons.”
Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki’s media adviser, also responded on his behalf, stating that the former governor’s legacies could not be tarnished by any amount of propaganda, blackmail, or lies from Governor Okpebholo and his media hirelings.
He claimed that Obaseki has effectively changed the people’s fortunes and set the state on a course for faster growth and prosperity in just eight years.
“The vacuity and cluelessness of the Monday Okpebholo-led government were laid bare in its most recent polemic, where it aimed futilely to denigrate the immediate-past governor of the state, whose illustrious legacy of service to Edo State transformed the fortunes of the people and placed the state on the path of progress and prosperity,” Osagie said in a statement on Wednesday.
“If anything, Godwin Obaseki has firmly etched his name in gold in the annals of Edo State’s history through the big, bold, transformative, and impactful projects that dot the nooks and crannies of the state, and no matter the lies or blackmail, these legacies cannot be blemished.
“We urge the clueless government of Monday Okpebholo to refrain from their divisive tactics and resort to lies and propaganda, and instead focus on governance and delivering developmental projects for the benefit of the state and its people if indeed they have any clear vision or agenda to offer,” Osagie added.
