Edo: Assembly Relegates Deputy Governor’s Office Below SSG On Budgetary Allocation

The rift between the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, seems not over following the recent allocation to the deputy governor’s office.

According to Vanguard, the budgetary allocation to the office of the deputy governor was a paltry N300 million as against the governor’s N19 billion, the Secretary to the State Government’s (SSG) N18 billion, the House of Assembly’s N13 billion and the Head of Service (HoS) N968 million.

The platform noted that 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 Friday, December 15, 2023.

Some lawmakers believed to be loyal to the deputy governor opposed the decision of the assembly members to pass the budget as presented by the governor, which they said was an “unfair appropriation,” but they were overwhelmed by the Speaker, Rt. Hon Blessing Agbebaku and others.

A peep into the accented budget showed that the sum of N19,148,177,584 went to the Governor while the deputy governor’s office was allocated the sum of N345,522,729.

The office of the Secretary to State Government (SSG) had ₦8,847,647,676, office of the Head of Service (HoS) N968,000,000 while the House of Assembly had the sum of N13,074,500,000.

A politician close to the governor who spoke with Vanguard said Obaseki vowed to ridicule and punish Shaibu financially in a bid to frustrate his governorship aspiration.

An insider said the budget has 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.”

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 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 money to the office.”