THE State Government has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last governorship election in the state, Asue Ighodalo and other supporters of the party, to return government vehicles in their possession.
Chairman, Government Assets Recovery Committee of the state, Kelly Okungbowa recently appointed by Governor Monday Okpebholo gave the order on Tuesday.
Okpebholo had set up an assets recovery committee to recover government assets including vehicles still in the hands of private individuals.
Okungbowa who disclosed this to journalists on Monday said some of the vehicles belonging to the moribund government transport company, Edo Line were allegedly sold and have been discovered in a spare parts market in Benin City, the Edo state capital.
He said “We want to use this medium to appeal to those people whose names have been mentioned, to please return those vehicles to the authorities, because they are not my property. Those vehicles are the property of the state government, for the Edo people. And we all know the cost of buying one vehicle. To buy a brand new Hilux costs you nothing less than N120 million. Where do they expect the governor to get that kind of money to purchase new vehicles?
“We want to appeal to them, especially the candidate of the PDP, Barrister Asue Ighodalo and his running mate. It is good for us to also advise them as a father and leader in the state, that they should do the right thing by returning those vehicles.
“It may interest you that those vehicles that have recovered- the governor has directed that we should reallocate them to the agencies, and we have done that.
“Mr governor went to Edo Line during the time of his electoral campaign. He said he would revamp Edo Line. When we got there, there was no vehicle. We got some information that those vehicles were taken from the Edo Line and sold. This morning, we got information, and we went to a place called Uwelo Spareparts. We discovered about 12 vehicles there. Six were movable, six were not movable. We have the video here.
“While we are appealing, the government will also decide on its own. We are not here to witch-hunt anybody. We are doing our job according to the law. It is not that we don’t know where some of them were kept. They took some of the vehicles to Lagos, Abuja, and Abeokuta. But we are appealing to them, and follow due process.
The committee also listed the names of officials attached to the previous administration who are allegedly still in possession of government vehicles, and advised that such vehicles be returned within 72 hours.
“We are giving them another 72 hours to do the needful. If they fail to do it, then, we will do the needful,” he added.