Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has accused Godwin Obaseki, the Edo State governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 19 governorship election of starving security agencies in the state of security allowance to combat crime despite the huge amounts he has been collecting monthly as security vote.
He attributed the situation to the unabated crime increase in Edo State in recent times.
Ize-Iyamu, who spoke at a media parley in Benin at the weekend alleged that Obaseki made the state House of Assembly to increase his security vote from N500 million to N750million monthly, while the money to the police to combat insecurity in the state still remained N5million.
He said the police could not combat crime with such paltry amount, noting that since the governor decided to increase his own security vote, he should have also done same to the police so that they could be effective in their job to secure the lives properties of Edo people.
The APC governorship candidate said Edo State remained the only state in the South-South region that had failed to invest in its security as Delta State government had purchased crime tracking devices for the police command to combat crime, thus leading to crime reduction in that state.
Ize-Iyamu said nothing seemed to be working in the Obaseki government as citizens of the state had been depending on their own source of drinking water, instead of the government providing it for them, leading to indiscriminate sinking of boreholes, thereby destroying the ecosystem.
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The APC candidate said with his manifestoes, christened the ‘SIMPLE AGENDA’, which he said was time bound, would address all the myriad problems bedeviling the state.
On the part of the National Vice Chairman, Media Committee of APC Campaign Council, Patrick Obayangbon, while corroborating Ize-Iyamu, said security was part of what the ‘SIMPLE AGENDA’ would tackle, adding that it was shameful that a governor received N750 million as a security vote monthly, but only succeeded in giving N5million to the security agency.
He said it was difficult for the security agency to combat crimes and criminality with such amount of money, noting that that is the cause of the surge of crimes in the state.
For the former Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Peter Isele, he said he decided to join forces with Ize-Iyamu based on his simple manifesto, which tended to address the challenges faced by the people of the state.
He said Obaseki’s promise on the creation of 200,000 jobs was bogus, and that there was nothing to show that the promise had been kept.
