Another Massive Fraud, Under Obaseki, Discovered …as whistle blower opens a keg of worms
By: Oriaifoh Godwins
The massive fraudulent practice wherein Mrs. Rose Adeboyega who was, and is still overseeing the Edo state Urban Water Corporation, was used by the administration of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the immediate past governor of Edo state, to carry out massive fraud in the Corporation, has been uncovered.
The whistle blower, Mr. Christopher Abhulimen, who in his letter to Edo state governor, titled: CONCERNING INSTANCES OF MISAPPROPRIATION OF FUNDS, MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS, POORLY EXECUTED CONTRACTS/FICTITIOUS CONTRACT PROJECTS FACILITATED BY THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION WITH THE ABBETMENT AND INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE ACTING MANAGING DIRECTOR OF EDO STATE URBAN WATER CORPORATION, MRS TOYIN ROSE ADEBOIYEGA. dated; February 6, 2025, revealed that, the Edo state Urban Water Corporation, during the administration of Mr. Obaseki, was one of the conduit pipes that was used to siphon funds out of the coffers of Edo state, saying; “some of the projects that Mrs. Adeboyega claimed to have executed, are not in existence; and for those that are in existence, nothing infers in them to justify the astronomical funding commitments attached to them”.
Mr. Christopher Abhulimen, of the Edo state Urban Water Corporation, EDPA Building, Sakpomba Road, Benin City, in his letter to Edo state Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, and signed by him, listed eight projects that were either over invoiced, or out rightly not in existence to include: Pipeline network, Reticulation of Ugboha, Uromi and environ, costing #700, 000, Funding of Abico pumping station,#23, 000,000, Provision of portable water to Emotan Garden Estate,#120, 000, 000 and the reactivation of water schemes at Etsako and Akoko Edo, #150,000,000.
The other projects he mentioned, include the supply of pipes and accessories to Ugboha/Uromi water scheme, #150, 000,000, supply of chemicals,#15, 000,000. Management of Ugboha Dam, #160, 000,000 and the illegal sales/disposal of exhumed ductile pipes in the course of road construction at Iruekpen and environ, that she costed at #43, 000,000.
In view of the above, Mr. Abhulimen, in his letter to the governor of Edo state, called on the governor to investigate the aforementioned projects as well as the complicity of Mrs. Toyin Rose Adeboyega, and her accomplices in the facilitation of what he described as the “unwarranted hemorrhage of public funds’.