Edo PDP, APC trade words over Libya returnees
The Edo State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the state of being the cause of the rising number of Edo indigenes seeking greener pastures in Libya.
Commenting on the increased urge by youths in the state to leave for greener pastures, Edo State chairman of the PDP, Dan Orbih, said the state has “witnessed unprecedented hardship and financial emasculation within the last successive nine years of the APC government in the state.
The rise in the number of Edo indigenes seeking financial succour in Libya is attributable to the abysmal failure of the Godwin Obaseki led All Progressives Congress (APC) government, says the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
70 per cent of Nigerians, who returned to the country in the last two months are said to have come from Edo State, while the state government has set up a unit to look after the Libya returnees before they are reunited with their families.
He said that Edo State had never had it this bad; pointing out that empty job promises and dejection by youths headlined the first year of the Obaseki’s administration.
Orbih said, “prior to Obaseki’s election, he promised the growing number of Edo State unemployed youths 200,000 jobs in four years but he has not even created 2,000 jobs in his first year and has failed woefully in engaging the youths in meaningful employments.
“He has resorted to wasteful and unproductive talk shows such as the Alaghodaro summit and he has also embarked on needless and financially draining trips in an unending search for foreign investors.
“It is indeed a shame that a government that promised employment to our youths is now saddled with the task of dealing with the embarrassing menace of the end product of its own failure by trying to rehabilitate Libya returnees.
“To underscore the rise in numbers of Edo indigenes involved in this despicable Libya slave labour with its dehumanising and lamentable crisis, the governor has created an office with an SSA to handle the ugly development.
“Available information is that many Edo State indigenes have died in the course of this unfortunate adventure in search for jobs in far away Libya as a result of Obaseki’s failed promises and government policies.”
The state government through the Special Adviser Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, however, discredited PDP’s claim, stating that the Edo PDP was desperate to reclaim power and that the party leaders have resorted to rumour peddling and outright falsehood for cheap publicity.
Mr Osagie said, “We have not created jobs but I want to ask, how they arrive at their claims? Do you just make claims? When you allege, you defend it with facts. The EDSTMA people on the streets, were they not just employed by the Obaseki’s government?
“Were people not employed at the Edo Industrial Park to do design and layout? Are they aware that we have continued to pull out qualified names from the pool of about 200,000 people that register on the Edo Job portal? These and so many others are ongoing and the PDP leaders are busy saying we are not creating jobs.”
By Titus Akhigbe,Benin
