Edo State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend raised N2 million for
Mrs Juliet Imobhio, widow of a man allegedly killed by officials of the state Traffic Management Agency (EDSTMA).
The state police commissioner, Mr Foluso Adebanjo, had on May, 2014, confirmed the arrest of two EDSTMA officials including one Mr Nosa Aideyan for allegedly causing the death of Godfrey Imobhio.
At the time, Imobhio was the transport manager of a Benin-based distribution company.
Aside the N2 million, the state PDP chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, and the Esama of Benin, Chief Nosakhare Igbinedion, awarded scholarship to three children of the deceased.
Orbih, at a briefing in Benin, decried the terror he said EDSTMA officials have been unleashing terror on motorists in Benin.
Orbih described Mrs Juliet Imobhio as being in a worse situation than the “Go-and-die” widow, because, according to the party chairman, “they have created a widow and they have neglected her.”
Orbih accused the state government of waste and fraud, saying that contracts were being awarded without recourse to due process.
“The governor hired an aircraft three times in two days to fly him in and out of Benin to short distances. He now changes furniture at the Governor’s Lodge every year.
“This year, he awarded a N55 million contract to Royal Antiquities and Interiors to buy new furniture. They also spent N37.5 million to buy three generators, whose market values were put at N14.5 million,” lamented the PDP chairman.
EDSTMA, he continued, “have been unleashing terror on the people. As a party, we have the responsibility to return sanity to the state.
“We commiserate with the family and we promise never to leave them alone. We will also open an account in the name of the family so that the children can have a future,” promised Orbih.
.
The PDP chairman, who personally donated the sum of N200, 000 at the event, also welcomed hundreds of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), from Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area including a former ACN/APC chairman in the council, Deacon Brown Ordia, and a former woman leader, Mrs Bose Oboh, to the PDP fold.
Other PDP leaders who pledged their donations to the family included Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Hon Matthew Uduorikemwen, Hon Pascal Ugbome, and Johnson Agbonayimwan.
Rev Martins Evbuomwan, Hon Godwin Eshishi and PDP lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly also made pledges.
Responding, Mrs Imobhio, who said life had been difficult for her family since the death of her husband, thanked the party for the gesture, promising to make judicious use of the money.