Mr. Chris Okaeben
BENIN CITY/Nigeria: Edo State House of Assembly Chairman House Committee on Energy and Water Resources, Mr. Chris Okaeben, has exonerated himself from the law criminalizing energy theft in the state.
He made the refutation in Benin while reacting to the allegation that he sponsored the bill criminalizing energy theft in the state at the floor of the house during plenaries.
Okaeben said he was never aware of such bill let alone passing it into law as claimed by some persons in the state and that he felt so embarrassed when some few individuals bent on tarnishing his hard earned reputation.
“Today, I am the ceremonial chairman house committee on energy and water resources because it is a privilege that I may not have all the time, it is a rare privilege for me to announce to my people that, that bill which is the subject of the debate today and the subject of protest, has nothing to do with me, it does not have my input.
“Some persons have even confessed to me in some social media platforms and there is one I found myself yesterday called the market place, where it even confirmed that the bill was sponsored by the majority leader of the house.
“And even if a bill is going to be sponsored and there is a chairman of that committee, I ought to have been put in the know but I was not.
“My anger is flowing from the fact that I was being accused of what I knew nothing about”, he said.
The Chairman, House Committee on Energy and Water Resources said the bill was an anti-people’s bill and that the BEDC ought to have provided meters to the people of the state before the house of assembly passing the energy theft bill into law.
He said his mandate has been to make laws that will improve and better the lots of the people of the state rather than strangulating them.
“Let me put on record, whatever I have stood for throughout my sojourn in this house has been in the interest of the people and it will continue to be in the interest of the Edo people.
“I will not do anything that will not be of an interest to the Edo people. I have served in different capacity in this state even long before Oshiomhole came on board, locally and even when Oshiomhole came, at the state level.
“I also served as secretary to the local government council, I also served as chairman, petroleum monitoring committee to the state.
“I also served as the state executive council of Edo state. To suggest that I do not understand the rudiments and the rules of engagement with regards to the politics of Edo state, then of course, it is very far from the truth”, he said.
