Written by Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY — Yesterday, the Edo state government warned to take necessary legal action against government officials who distributed State Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation lands among its facilities in the state capital and elsewhere.
When the Edo State Public Property Protection Committee, led by Eugene Okoloise, visited the Ministry’s facilities, Hon. Washington Osifo, the Commissioner in charge of the ministry, made this statement. Some of the encroachers who had been erecting permanent structures claimed they had received the allocations from representatives of the Water Corporation, an agency under the ministry.
“We will not close our eyes to the fact that these are government properties; we need to reclaim them for the government so that the government will have use for them and can decide what they want to do with them, but certainly it should not go to the hands of individuals,” stated Osifo.
“We will set up an inquiry; some names have been mentioned by people we met on the ground, along with how they came to it; the inquiry will produce appropriate reports to the ministry, and we will take appropriate action against those involved.”
“No one, regardless of their position within the ministry or agency, may enter into a contractual obligation on behalf of the government without first seeking and obtaining the government’s consent, and once you do, it becomes illegal.”
“So what we are saying is that no one has the legal right to enter into contractual applications with anybody to the extent of giving them shanties, and some of them have now progressed to building superstructures with concrete blocks on what is supposed to be a temporary apartment.” This applies to both ministry employees and employees of agencies under the ministry’s control.
Regarding the government’s plan to supply public water to the populace, the Commissioner stated that the government of Monday Okpebholo was considering going into the rural areas to supply public water before the urban areas, where public water infrastructure has been distorted by urbanization activities and individual borehole sinking.
“We are examining the situation to determine whether it is still feasible to submit those facilities to the provision of public water considering the amount of money invested in roads, electricity, drainage control, and the construction of private and public homes.
Our goal is to focus on vital rural communities that require water. Before moving on to the cities, we would like to begin there.
