Almost 500 vehicles belonging to the Edo State government are still missing, according to Fred Itua, the chief press secretary to Governor Monday Okpebholo.

A committee set up by Edo State to recover vehicles and other assets belonging to the state had earlier said 200 vehicles were missing.

But Itua said the figure is now higher, according to information from the committee led by Kelly Okungbowa.

“So far, the committee set up to recover vehicles, as of this morning from findings that I made, they had recovered about 10 vehicles,” Itua said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics.

“From the conversation I had with the chairman of that committee, he said that the initial figure of 200 was understated that there are almost 500 vehicles that are still missing and as of yesterday, they had traced about 21 of those vehicles to the house of a very top appointee of the last government.”

According to him, some of the missing vehicles were also traced to a former official of the past government of Godwin Obaseki.

“Then, another – about 15  – traced to the house of another [top appointee of Obaseki’s government], and in the coming days, they intend to legitimately recover these vehicles and other assets belonging to the state so that is being held in private hands which ordinarily should not have happened.”

Itua said some officials of the Okpebholo administration do not have vehicles, adding that the current government inherited nothing from Obaseki.

The development is the latest in the Edo State government’s inquiry into the administration of Obaseki which handed over some weeks ago.

Obaseki is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Okpebholo belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and had defeated the former’s anointed candidate Asue Ighodalo in the September 21 governorship election.

The Edo Government recently set up a committee to probe Obaseki’s administration. It said the move was part of the governor’s “promise to ensure probity, accountability, and transparency in governance”.

But in the wake of the fractured relationship between successor and predecessor, Obaseki claimed that Okpebholo’s action was a smokescreen to shield his [governor’s] incompetence and lack of preparation for leadership.

Obaseki’s media aide Crusoe Osagie said, “we know what their plans are with the diversionary probes. It is just a smokescreen to mask the governor-elect’s incompetence and unpreparedness for office, having come into power through a stolen mandate.

“We want to advise Okpebholo to focus on governance and improving the lives of Edo people rather than waste state resources masking his incompetence in meaningless probes.”