By Monday EBALU, Benin

Former Edo State Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC Boss, Matthew Iduoriyekewmen has appealed to the federal government to increase the funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NNDC.
Iduoriyekewmen decried the series of abandoned projects owing to the underfunding of the Niger Delta Development Commission by the government and called for a halt of awarding new contracts until ongoing projects are completed, adding that the present debt profile of the Commission to contractors amounts to trillions of Naira arising from accumulation of certificate of performance of jobs done.
The frontline Peoples Democratic Party, PDP gubernatorial aspirant ahead of the 2016 governorship election who spoke with newsmen in Benin City however promised to lay a sustainable and vibrant economic foundation that will curtail the impact of the dwindling oil revenue when elected as governor.
Iduoriyekewmen equally condemned the Edo state Economic Committee headed by Godwin Obaseki which he called a total failure.
According to him, “can you tell me what that economic team has achieved in the last seven years because I have not seen anything on ground? How has the committee affected the life of average Edo person?
Until we go beyond the situation where state governments continue relying on statutory allocation from the federal account, then we are not ready to move forward. Every government should be able to look inwards’’
‘’The Obaseki team only succeeded in putting economic burden on Edo people, hence you found that all the petty traders including foreign investors and electronic sellers are massively re-locating to neighboring states owing to excessive taxation’’, he observed. Meanwhile, A ubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Edo state and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2012, Maj-Gen. Charles Airhiavbere has said he is the aspirant to beat in the forthcoming primaries of the party dismissing claims by a section of the party that the state leadership of the party has anointed a particular aspirant ahead of the APC primaries.
Airhiavbere while inundating his kinsmen of his guber ambition on at Agbodo community in Edo, assured that only the best candidate will emerge in the primaries saying, “Edo State cannot afford to be different in the political scheme of things in the APC led government in the country.”
“The APC Primaries in Lagos, Kogi and Bayelsa states were all transparent and Edo State cannot be different, coupled with the fact that Edo state is the only APC state in the South-South. Nobody will impose candidate for Edo APC and only the best candidate will be accepted”, Airhiavbere said.

He however called on the contestants on the platform of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), to see the primaries as an exercise to
test their popularity amongst the party delegates noting that the
President Mohammadu Buhari led APC government is known for
transparency and frowns at disrespect for the rule of law.

According to him, “the National Leadership of the ruling APC will
ensure transparency at the Edo APC primaries to ensure that the
electoral process is not skewed in favour of a particular or anointed
aspirant.”