Benin group warns against dragging Oba to politics

A group, operating under the aegis of Mid-West Progressives Forum (MPF), has urged the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, not to drag the name of the Oba of Benin into the controversial Benin Water Storm project.

Addressing journalists in Benin on Monday, MPF President, Mr Adaze Andrew Emwanta, said the call became necessary in reaction to the open letter written by the Minister to President Muhammadu Buhari, explaining his role in the Water Storm project when he was Commissioner for Environment in the state.

The group frowned at the minister’s attempt at engaging the Benin Monarch as his messenger to pass the information on the Benin Water Storm project to the Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

“While the Midwest Progressives Forum is not a mouthpiece of the Oba of Benin, we noted the vexatious, ill-intentioned and calculated insult Prince Clem Agba’s so-called “personal letter” brings to the aged old Benin Monarchy and the entire Benin race,” the group said.

“Not done, Clem Agba even described water project as a legacy bestowed on Oba Erediauwa, the father of the incumbent Oba of Benin. This unnecessary reference explains the disdain to which Prince Clem Agba has placed the Benin Monarch, under the guise of defending his (Agba’s) role in the Benin Water Storm project,” MPF added.

The group alleged that Minister unwittingly employed the statements in his open letter against two generations of the Benin monarchy as a blackmail tool against Governor Obaseki.

It warned that any attempt by the minister and his followers to strain the existing relationship between the governor and the Benin monarch would fail.

The group advised that if the minister wanted to defend himself even by proxy over his role in the Water Storm Project, the name of the Oba of Benin should not be dragged into it.

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Benin group warns against dragging Oba to politics