Edo: Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu clash over N20bn loan for campaign claim

TRACKING____THE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State for the September 19 election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, on Friday alleged plan by his counterpart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Godwin Obaseki, to obtain a N20 billion loan to fund his campaigns.

Ize-Iyamu, in a statement through his campaign organisation’s Director of Communication and Media, Prince John Mayaki, accused the governor of draining the state treasury with a N15 billion payout to PDP chieftains for the party’s governorship ticket.

He said: “It has come to our notice that Obaseki is now scurrying around to embark on another borrowing spree, with a planned N20 billion bond loan from some financial institutions.

“We find it shocking that after the many tribulations Obaseki’s directionless and incompetent administration has caused in Edo State, the governor is hatching fresh plans to mortgage the future of the state and its youths with additional loans to fund his desperate political agenda to foist himself on the people for another four years.

“Obaseki already racked up foreign loans that propelled Edo State to number two on the states with the most indebtedness in the country, without any commensurate gain in infrastructure, the economy and security.

“Efforts to get Edo governor to offer accountability on what he did with the loans and the role his private firm played in their acquisition all fell on deaf ears.

“It is heartless, irresponsible and unconscionable for such a man to even conceive obtaining another loan in the tune of N20 billion for his political godfathers in the PDP, who are cashing in on his desperation and lack of integrity.

But the Governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, said cheap lies would not save Ize-Iyamu from a crushing defeat.

He described the APC candidate’s allegation as another fabrication.

He said: “When you have a candidate that is facing criminal charges for laundering N700 million, at the same time he is trying to campaign for an election, then you can imagine that they are left with no other choice but to tell cheap lies, just to get ahead.

“Ize-Iyamu knows beyond doubt that his political career will be terminated unceremoniously on September 19, 2020 by Governor Obaseki, and no desperate lie can save him now.”