Ismail Abdulazeez Mantu Reporting
Few months into his administration, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State, has landed the state’s economy into big mess as its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) dropped drastically from N8 billion to N2 billion monthly.
Truth Live News gathered that the drastic fall in revenue is linked to the ongoing turf wars over revenue collection by thugs said to be hired by Okpebholo and used to rig the 2024 governorship election who are now embroiled in a fierce battle for control of the various State’s revenue points for settlements.
The immediate past State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, had on the back of nuanced reforms in revenue administration, which revolutionized the State’s revenue collection process, recorded a 370 percent growth in IGR in the last eight years, growing the State’s IGR from N23.64bn in 2016 to N67.29bn in the third quarter of 2024.
The State’s monthly IGR was also raised to N8 billion, with a projection to close the 2024 IGR collection year with N85bn and N120bn in 2025.
This fiscal stability and growth which was achieved by the immediate past government, deploying technology, is what is now being threatened by the rascality and incompetence of the Monday Okpebholo-led administration, who are in desperate search of slush funds to settle political actors and thugs for their roles in rigging the 2024 guber polls.
The situation is made worse by the seemingly dazed Okpebholo, who in a bid to regain control of the system, announced a temporary halt of revenue collection across the State, thereby leaving the State without revenues for over two weeks.
But the thugs, despite the government’s revenue collection suspension, have continued to illegally collect the revenues in various guises, with none of the funds reaching state coffers.
The financial paralysis is said to have halted the payment of salaries and pensions while funding for ongoing construction projects has also been put on hold on account of the chaos and crisis brought into the State’s revenue administration by the governor-select, Monday Okpebholo.