Ex Gov. Oshiomhole

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has warned a former Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mrs. Elizabeth Ativie, to return the official vehicles to the authority of the Assembly or face criminal charges.

This is even as he denied writing a letter in which he expressly transfered ownership of  the vehicles to her, adding that if she refuses to hand over the four vehicles in her possession, she should be charged and prosecuted for stealing.

Oshiomhole made the denial Tuesady night, while fielding questions from journalists at his country home in Iyahmo.

Following her impeachment alongside other principal officers of Assembly, the former Deputy Speaker had refused to return four vehicles attached to her office, claiming that the former Governor had authorised her to keep them.

The vehicles are one Toyota Prado SUV, one Lexius SUV and two Toyota Hilux pick-up vans.

“Ativie has to return those vehicles and I believe that the government, whether the Executive or Legislative branch, has to follow the legal procedures to recover those vehicles, and if she has privatised them, to charge her for stealing. I had a meeting, incidentally, with the members of the House few days after the change (impeachment) and I pointedly reminded her that she had to return those vehicles.

“You will not forget in a hurry that everything that happens in the State, the Governor is the person that everybody looks at, whether he knows about it or not. Even those who know that the Governor does not know, it is very convenient to just blame him for everything.

“At the eve of the governorship election, the House had reasons to make a change which offset what we commonly refer to as the tripod. But once they made the change, the thing was either she resigned when the House realised that they agreed with the party that we needed to make an adjustment or they impeached the  Speaker. And they were not ready to impeach her because they said that it would not be fair to impeach her.

“Though there were arguments that, after all, she was married to an Esan man and, therefore by marriage, she is Esan. But again, you know that in Nigeria, it depends on what suits you. One of the concerns she raised was that now she had the vehicles of the Speaker. If she had to resign and be made a Deputy Speaker, she would not be entitled to those four vehicles.

“And we agreed that she can use the four vehicles as Deputy Speaker, for as long as she occupied the office. But that does not mean that the next Deputy Speaker would have four vehicles because the vehicles are for the office of the Speaker, but personal to you as Deputy Speaker. How does that amount to asset transfer?

The former Governor who noted that governor’s have certain powers specified by the law, however, disclosed that he even had to hand over his official car on leaving office, adding that he had no such powers to transfer ownership of the vehicles to the embattled former Deputy Speaker.

“I am not in a position to give out government assets. The car that Governor [Godwin] Obaseki is using now, incidentally, was one of my official cars. The one he is using in Abuja is the one I handed over. They are not my properties. It is true that governors have powers but those powers are derived from law; the limits of those powers are also well-specified in law.

“Nothing in the law empowered me to give out the property of the Edo State Government. I am not competent to do so; so even I were to purport to do so, it would be illegal. Just like I reminded them (lawmakers) in that meeting, I told her that, ‘Even as assembly member, how can you say that I gave you government property? Do I have the power to do that? You are a lawmaker; you should know the law.’

“Even as a parliamentarians, there are laws you make that would be void, if there are in conflict with the Constitution. There are limitations. So, I cannot purport or exercise powers that I do not have. If I cannot give cars in the Government House to people, why should I give out legislative cars? They belong to the parliament, which is another arm of government. The Executive cannot appropriate or purport to appropriate those cars and give them to individuals.

“So clearly, if she has registered them in her name, as I read in the papers, even that is a fraud because they were meant for the office of the deputy speaker, as an office, is different from Ativie as a person. So, if she changed the vehicles and registered them in her personal name, that is criminal for which she should be prosecuted,” he said.

Commenting on the letter Mrs. Ativie’s lawyer claimed he wrote, authorising the transfer of the ownership of the vehicles, Oshiomhole said he has no such powers.

“If it is anything done by me, I have told you what I did and I think it is very straightforward, first, is that, I never wrote her a letter donating government cars to her. No. I couldn’t have; it doesn’t make sense. I don’t have such powers. Even if I wish to and if I am going to donate government cars, I cannot donate cars belonging to the Edo State House of Assembly.

“There is separation of powers. The Governor of Edo State cannot appropriate cars belonging to the office of the Deputy Speaker. The only reason I got involved in it was that if she [Ativie], had to be using those vehicles as the Deputy Speaker, it means that the Edo State Government had to appropriate funds to buy new cars for the new Speaker, because she was not ready to hand them over.

“That is the only area I come in because I have to look for the money. The Executive collects the taxes and the House of Assembly appropriates. So, to appropriate is not the challenge; the challenge is how to find the money and the issue was that she would not hand over the vehicles and I said she could use them even as the Deputy Speaker. But, ordinarily, the Deputy Speaker should not use those four vehicles.

“But that is not to say that they are her personal assets. How can I say that? Will that not amount to bribery? Will I have to bribe her with State asset?

“In any case, I do not have such competence. I cannot give you what I do not have. So, Ativie should just do the honourable thing by returning the vehicles. And if, as I read in the papers, she sold them and registered them in her name, then she stole the vehicles and should be so charged and prosecuted.”