A gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has accused the Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomole-led administration of receiving over N1 trillion since the beginning of the 7-year tenure from the Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), squandering the said sum on inflated projects that were distributed unevenly across the state.
Ize-Iyamu, who is a former Secretary to the Edo State Government made the assertion via a paper he presented at a town hall meeting held on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 in the state capital, Benin, organised by a group called the House 2 House Initiative.
The paper which was titled Edo State Economy: The Way Out also accused the government of focusing on only sectors of the economy to the detriment of the critical sectors, especially poverty, unemployment, agriculture, industry, tourism, sports, housing.
He, however hailed the state government for increasing the IGR of the state from N300 million to N2 billion.
He said: “Edo State Government in the past seven and a half years received over N1 trillion as revenue from the Federation Account and IGR. This is unprecedented in the revenue profile of the state since its inception. This huge revenue was unfortunately not used to grow the economy of the state but squandered on highly inflated projects that were not evenly distributed across the state.
“They were restricted to one or two sectors to the detriment of other critical areas. The evils of poverty and unemployment were not tackled while sectors such as agriculture, industry, tourism, sports, housing, solid minerals were ignored. Existing factories like Bendel Brewery, Edo Line, Edo Courier, Edo Hotel and Bendel Insurance have been allowed to collapse.
“A government that chooses deliberately to ignore agriculture, industry, tourism, sports, solid minerals, etc cannot be seriously concerned about the economy of the state. The present government has, however, made serious effort at increasing the internally generated revenue of the state from N300 million monthly when they came in to N2billion monthly. This is commendable.”
