By Oluwayemi Davidson, Warri
A 28-year-old disabled shoemaker, Prince Rukevwe Ufuoma on Friday in Warri, Delta State, led a group of ward campaigners seeking the election of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, as the state governor in 2023.
Rukevwe Ufuoma, who is the Chairman of the Physically Challenged members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Okumagba Ward 12, caused stir as he, on his wheel chair, danced and displayed round the sprawling field of Olodi Primary School, Okumagba, alongside other campaigners who had besieged the party’s ward-to-ward rally.
The disabled cobbler, who said he hails from Orogun community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state told journalists that he “fell in love with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege following the yeoman’s job he has been doing at the National Assembly, even as the Deputy President of the Senate”.
“It is my belief that with the series of infrastructural development and community development activities he has been executing for the constituency as a Senator, Omo-Agege will perform even better if given the mandate to serve as Governor of Delta State”, Ufuoma stated.
He spoke further: “I am campaigning for Omo-Agege in view of the good reports I have been hearing about this man. Even though I have never met him on one-on-one before, I believe he has a lot of human kindness in him.
“It is my belief that Omo-Agege will ultimately turn around the fortunes of Delta State. As a goal getter, hopefully he will revive the moribund industries and infrastructures in the state, thus providing gainful employment for the teeming unemployed youths and women, across the State.
“In my own small way, as a professional shoe maker, I promise to design a pair of shoes as Christmas/New Year token for Senator Omo-Agege and this will be ready for delivery hopefully between now and the first week of January, by God’s grace. With my assorted designs, I am proud to say that I can even make shoes for exportation. Nigeria does not even need to be importing shoes if we, the local manufacturers, are encouraged and given adequate patronage”.
While addressing party faithful at the rally, Omo-Agege lamented that “Warri has now become the keke headquarters in Nigeria”, while attributing the negative development to bad governance by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state since 1999.
Omo-Agege noted that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration alone had collected N3.5 billion federal allocation since the past seven-and-a half years without nothing tangible to show for it in terms of infrastructural development, and yet went ahead to collect bank loans of N400 billion.
“Never again should Delta State fortunes be placed on PDP”, Omo-Agege told the mammoth crowd of party supporters, just as he promised to embark on massive urban renewal programme with Warri as a model city and economic hub.
Omo-Agege also assured the electorate that with proper investment in security architecture by his proposed government, “all the companies that have relocated out of Warri will be reassured to come back”.
He then enjoined the people to vote massively for the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all other candidates of the party vying for the different electoral offices in 2023.
