THE All Progressives Congress has asked Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State to explain the whereabouts of his Commissioner for Arts, Culture, and Tourism, Osaze Ero-Osemwingie.
The party claimed that the commissioner was arrested last year in France for money laundering, saying he was caught in possession of an unexplained $2million.
The APC raised the alarm in a statement made available to The Point on Wednesday, following what it described as the Governor’s quiet replacement of the remanded Commissioner and the swearing-in of Lawrence Ogieva as the new Commissioner for Arts, Culture, and Diaspora Affairs.
The party, in the statement, signed by the Chairman, APC Media Campaign Council, John Mayaki, accused Obaseki of attempting to sweep the scandal under the carpet.
APC alleged that Ero-Osemwingie had confessed that he was running errands for the Governor in Europe before he was arrested by INTERPOL.
Mayaki said Governor Obaseki’s official silence on the matter was suspicious and conspiratorial and demanded a full explanation of the source of the $2m Ero-Osemwingie was caught with, including the nature of the errands he was running for the state government before his arrest in Europe.
He added that the swearing-in of the new Commissioners was unknown to law, as they were presented before an illegal Assembly, and demanded that the Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Diaspora Affairs be subjected to a thorough, independent investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to ascertain the involvement of the state government in the arrested Commissioner’s money laundering scheme and whether the alleged crime was state-sanctioned with the Ministry as a cover.
The statement said, “At the fall of last year, before the rage of COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Obaseki’s Commissioner for Arts, Culture, and Diaspora Affairs, Osemwingie Ero, left the shores of Nigeria to, according to his own words, ‘run errands for the government.’ But for over nine months now, he has not returned, having been arrested in France with an unexplained two million dollars and jailed on the charges of money laundering.
“However, in a fresh development, Governor Obaseki, on 25th August, illegally swore in, alongside other persons, Lawrence Ogieva, as the new Commissioner for Arts, Culture, and Diaspora Affairs, after months of suspicious and conspiratorial silence as if the image-denting arrest of Osemwingie Ero never occurred. ”
“This silence and pretence imply that the Government of Edo State, which the jailed commissioner expressly stated he was running errands for, has questions to answer on the two million dollars Commissioner Ero-Osemwingie was arrested with, as well as the other pieces of evidence that have emerged on the network of foreign accounts he illegally operates through proxies across Europe.”
The APC added that there were several questions begging for answers, noting that the people of Edo State, and the family of the arrested Commissioner, were, “by the dictates of the constitution and democracy, which compel every elected government to be accountable to the people, entitled to hear the answers to the questions from no other person than Mr. Godwin Obaseki himself.”
It said, “No responsible and guilt-free government would keep mum while its senior official and one of the Governor’s closest allies remains languishing in a foreign prison over credible allegations of money laundering.
“Attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet, just like all other credible allegations of fraud and corruption established against the Obaseki-led government, will be futile as we will continue to mount pressure on all relevant authorities to uncover details on what could potentially be a state-sanctioned fraud involving the criminal transfer of public funds into private accounts operated abroad.
“In the meantime, we are demanding the nullification of the illegal swearing-in of the new Commissioner and the pending of any such replacement until the completion of a full investigation of the Ministry by the EFCC to determine the extent of the government’s involvement in Osemwingie-Ero’s alleged money laundering and other crimes.”
