Obaseki asks Edo Assembly to review dep gov office’s budget

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has forwarded a revised 2024 budget of the Deputy Governor’s Office to the state House of Assembly for its upward review.

The development comes barely five months after the Assembly reduced the budgetary allocation to the deputy governor’s office to N354.5 million from the initial N1.3 billion. The Assembly had done the downward review during the face-off between Governor Obaseki and his erstwhile deputy, Philip Shuaibu, who was impeached last month.

But following the exit of Shaibu and the appointment of Marvelous Godwins Omobayo as the new deputy governor, Obaseki, in a letter dated May 16, addressed to the Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, asked the Assembly to review the budget back to the initial N1.3 billion.

The letter, signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie, was read during plenary yesterday.

After the reading, the speaker directed the Clerk of the House to invite the commissioner for finance, the director for budget, and the state accountant-general to appear on May 21 for an interface with the House for the purpose of fine-tuning the budget.

Recall that the Speaker during the passing of the budget defended the reduction, saying it was because the impeached deputy governor was not expected to carry out too many functions in 2024, as he would be contesting for the governorship election.

“The Deputy Governor has even complained that he is no longer working. If you are not working, why allocate money to the office? The money is not allotted to you as a personal gift; it is given for work. So, if you are not working, naturally the money will not come, and there is no way you can be working effectively when you have an ambition of becoming the governor,” he had said.