Oshiomhole: Igbenedion and his father ‘ought to be in prison’

Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, has accused Lucky Igbenedion, one of his predecessors, of conniving with his father, a prominent businessman, to loot the resources of the state.

Addressing students of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, who paid him a solidarity visit at the Edo state government house on Wednesday, Oshiomhole said Igbenedion, who governed the state between 1999 and 2007, gave his father over 200, 000 hectares of land belonging to the government.

The governor said many government belongings were also converted to personal use, threatening to publish the list of assets that the Igbenedion family acquired illegally.

“I want to be remembered as the man who took from those who have bastardised, raped and privatised the resources of Edo state, used our money to build their private universities and walk around our streets when they are supposed to be in prison,” he said.

“Edo people will be shocked how they have been raped by the gang masters of original fraudster. I will publish records in black and white. I am going to publish all the assets, government-owned lands that Igbinedion the son has ceded to Igbinedion the father, properties of Edo people.

“Lucky Igbinedion gave out over 200,000 acres of government land to Gabriel Igbinedion, his own father. They took that land on the ground that they will use it for mechanised farming but Igbinedion took this land and gave to cocoa farmers, some of them from Edo, some from Yorubaland.

“These cocoa farmers will farm and sweat to grow their cocoa on government land yet Igbinedion will sit in his house on which he is not paying ground rent and be collecting royalties. Is Igbinedion the Oba of Benin? The great Oba of the great Benin Kingdom never subjected his people to that level of exploitation.

“I revoked the land and returned it to government and they got angry and have been fighting me. Igbinedion believes he is above the law but I told him that he must obey the laws made by government. If he faults the law, he will go to prison.

“Everybody born of a woman in this state must be subjected to the rule of law. If he does not want to obey those laws, he will have to relocate.