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THE crisis between the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, took a new dimension as indications emerged that the budgetary allocation to the office of the deputy governor was now N300 million.
To put it in perspective, Governor Obaseki’s allocation is N19 billion; Secretary to the State Government, SSG, N18 billion; House of Assembly, N13 billion and the Head of Service, N968 million.
Some observers believe that the slash in the allocation to the deputy governor’s office was because of his ambition to succeed his boss as governor of the state.
The 2024 Appropriation Bill was signed into law on the evening of Friday, December 15, 2023.
It was gathered that some lawmakers believed to be loyal to the deputy governor, opposed the decision of the members of the Assembly to pass the budget as presented by the governor.
The dissenting lawmakers said it was an “unfair appropriation” but that they were overruled by the Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku and others.
The budget
A peep into the accented budget showed that N19,148,177,584 was for the governor’s office, while the office of the deputy governor, Shaibu, was allocated N345,522,729.
The office of the SSG had N8,847,647,676; HoS, N968,000,000 while the House of Assembly had N13,074,500,000.
A politician close to the governor said Obaseki vowed to ridicule and punish Shaibu financially in a bid to frustrate his governorship aspiration.
An insider said the budget had divided the lawmakers: “The governor believes he is having a field day now but may end up the worst for it. The Speaker may be the first victim in all of these,” he said.
But a principal member of the House of Assembly said there is no division in the house.
He said: “The sum allocated to the office of the deputy governor is not small. The deputy governor is contesting the election and you know what it takes to contest.
“He will have no time for official duties so the governor decided that since he will not do those official work, you cannot allocate such much money to the office.”
