Benin traditional ruler bans works minister from palace

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26 Feb 2011

Benin traditional ruler bans works minister from palace

Oba Erediauwa I, Benin traditional ruler, ordered Minister of State for Works, Chris Ogiemwonyi, out of his palace today, saying he could not come in until the infamous Benin-Ore road was fixed. Not even the presence of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), could save the minister from the anger of the traditional ruler.

Mr. Ogiemwonyi had paid a visit to the palace immediately after his appointment as minister and had promised to take urgent steps to fix the gully-ridden road. The minister went with several candidates of the PDP in the forthcoming general elections to the palace to seek the oba’s royal blessing for their aspirations.

Oba Erediauwa said that the road was strategic to the economic development of the country and had remained dilapidated even when one of his subjects was now a minister in the Works Ministry. According to a palace source, as soon as the minister was introduced to the king, he was “ordered out of the palace for feeding the palace and citizens of the state with lies over the state of the road.”