The Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr Crusoe Osagie, has urged the Publicity Secretary of the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Mr Chris Nehikhare, to remain calm while the investigation into complaints of the conversion of a school land to private use by members of the PDP in the state, continues.
In a statement issued yesterday in Benin City, Osagie said “someone with a clear conscience, no matter how close the range of an accusation is to him, dreads no accusation” and asked why members of the Edo PDP are running helter-skelter over the complaints.
“Since the Edo State Government issued a press statement expressing its resolve to investigate the complaints of the illegal conversion of the land belonging to the Anglican Girls Grammar School, to private use by the erstwhile and ill-fated Peoples Democratic Party-led government in the state, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Edo State and the entire camp of the party have known no peace and have lost sleep,” Osagie said.
He queried that “If Nehikhare and other remnants of the dying PDP are sure that they did not share or appropriate the school land, then why are they jittery?”
He explained that “The Edo State Government received complaints of land grab from concerned Edo people and the government is investigating the matter.
“Nehikhare and his co-travellers, hunted by their age-old and tainted shadows, have become paranoid, behaving like children that are terror-stricken and have been hopping about on the internet like viruses, over the complaints.”
The governor’s spokesman emphasised that if the PDP members are sure that they did not build on the land of Anglican Girls Grammar School, they need not run helter-skelter.
Osagie stressed that “The Edo State government is undeterred by the sudden feverish behaviour of the PDP members and will follow due process in unravelling the people that illegally converted a school property to their private use.”
He assured that “while the government is open about all its processes and procedures, we will rely on valid and verifiable documents on the true dimension of the AGGS land and not the oral claim by Chris Nehikhare that his chairman, Dan Orbih, lives a few metres away from the school land.”
He asked: “Is PDP the ministry or agency in charge of lands in Edo State? Is the party the custodian of land data of the state? The PDP lacks the credibility and beleivability to tell Edo people the true dimension of the AGGS land.”
