Dr. Dennis Osahon Aikoriogie, the Edo State National Rescue Movement (NRM) candidate, has outlined his vision for addressing the pressing issues of food insecurity and security challenges in the state.
The NRM flagbearer in an exclusive interview on RayPower FM 105.5 Benin, spoke on pressing issues, including his plan to revitalize the state in line with his “Rescue Mission” agenda.
On food insecurity, Dr. Aikoriogie emphasized the need to empower farmers stating, “We need to empower farmers to make sure they get what they want, the farm inputs in terms of seedlings, we help them with tractors, we help them with money to make sure they are able to conveniently farm.”
He further noted, “Just as it is been done in other countries, farmers are really empowered to make sure they carry out large scale farming.”
Dr. Aikoriogie also acknowledged the challenge of mismanaged funds meant for farmers.
“The money meant for farmers, I will make sure it reached their hands”, he vowed.
He envisions a shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming and export, declaring, “We will not just do subsistence farming, we will take it to commercial farming and export to make sure we are sufficient in Agricultural products, we have enough to sell and make foreign exchange for Edo State.”
On security, Dr. Aikoriogie stressed the importance of empowering the police.
“In security, we need to empower the police. We know police matters are Federal matters, but thankfully President Tinubu is talking about State Police, recently for the meeting that he held with the governors, he talked about state police. When we enter there, we will talk about state police to make sure the governors have control over the state police, to make sure that they get equipments to fight crime. You know police if they are well taken care of, they get better housing, their family is well taken care of, we get CCTV cameras for everywhere to monitor crime, we get good patrol vehicles, ammunition’s to fight crime.”
“We will make sure we empower police and get surveillance for the length and breadth of Edo State and all the borders, entry points, and all border towns in the state.
Good patrols to make sure people coming in are really checked”, he said.
Dr. Aikoriogie also proposed introducing unique IMEI numbers for Edo residents and biometric features like fingerprints and facial detection to enhance crime tracing.
He acknowledged the role of the Edo State Security Network (ESN) in community policing and intelligence gathering, but noted that they need to work in tandem with the police.
“Edo State security network are like vigilantes, they are meant to work hand in hand with the police. We need to strengthen them, the way they’re working now, we ain’t seeing any salary structure, they majorly fend for themselves, definitely they will go into crime.”
