Edo Forum of Patriots, weekend, tasked the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates for National Assembly to work towards improving the fortunes of the state.

A statement signed by Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, Chairman, Interim Management Committee of the Forum, and made available to newsmen in Benin, said Edo State is fast on the verge of losing its pride of place in the country’s socio-economic and political developments.

He said: “In the last five years, Edo State has been in the news for one political crisis or the other and zero attention has been paid to existential threats of herdsmen menace, disproportionate corporate social responsibility by oil and gas multinationals, cultism and youth gangsterism.

“The circle of crises cost our state the exalted office of the APC national chairman, as well as the chairman of almost inaugurated Niger Delta Development Commission board.

“As you move into campaigns, it should be intellectually based, it should be oiled by patriotic will as opposed to chauvinistic tendencies and personal aggrandizement.”

He declared that Edo people would hold candidates and parties accountable for unpalatable conduct in the build-up to the general elections.