PDP Seeks Investigation Into Missing SUBEB’s N320m

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, has called on?Governor Adams Oshiomhole, to account for the alleged missing of N320 million funds belonging to the State Universal Basic Education Board SUBEB.

State Chairman of the Party, Chief Dan Orbih, made the call?last Thursday while reacting to the state government’s statement?that the sack of the former Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Education had nothing to do with the missing fund.

Orbih said that it was a statement of fact that N320 million out of the N600 million paid into the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) account was unaccounted for.

He explained that the party had it on “good authority’’ that five officials of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) shared the money and advised that the governor in the spirit of accountability take responsibility for the missing funds.

‘’It is a statement of fact that N320 million out of N600 million paid into SUBEB account in the state was paid into a phony account. ‘’The money was the balance after the deduction of salaries of staff of the board, and we also have it on record that five officials of the ACN shared it.

‘’We told the people of the state about the missing fund not because we want the governor to make a scape-goat out of it, but for him to tell the people those involved in the fraud and what he intends to do to recover it,” he said.

He also advised the governor to concentrate more on governance and be a guide with transparency and accountability in discharging his duty.

The chairman further said that no agency under the PDP administration in the state had at any time been accused of stealing government funds.

However,  Oshiomhole while swearing-in the new Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Education on Wednesday, debunked allegations that money was missing from SUBEB.

He said: “There are speculations as to why we made changes.?The only thing that is constant in life is change, what matters, therefore, is to know when to make that change.

“Let me clear the air that no money is missing, if money is missing we will find it because money doesn’t have legs.’’

The governor also said that, “it is only in societies where public authority is dead that you talk of money missing.

‘’If money is stolen, we will find it, money doesn’t simply get missing, not in government.”

He?also said that running an efficient system was not just about money missing or not missing, but about how money was applied.

‘’In this business, the end does not always justify the means, the means must be appropriate,’’ he said.