Elder Statesman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark has given a massive boost to the gubernatorial ambition of Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At a three-hour ceremony attended by top personalities from the state at Clark’s Asokoro home in Abuja, the former Federal Commissioner for Information, who also led the struggle for the creation of the state in 1991 emphatically affirmed his confidence in Omo-Agege’s capacity to turn the fortunes of the state and its people around.
“My son, you will be the Governor (in 2023). Your father, who is no longer with us, will be proud and happy to see me, his brother working to make his son our Governor. Authority belongs to God and I want to pray for you”, Clark stated, adding that Omo-Agege’s administration would massively transform the state within eight years.
The nationalist disclosed that after seeing the massive pace of infrastructural and human capital development being executed by Omo-Agege in his Delta Central Senatorial District, he had advised him to spread such historically significant goodies to other parts of the state, and that the Senator did not hesitate in accelerating the development of areas outside his constituency.
Clark insisted that he would vote for Omo-Agege against the opposing Peoples Democratic Party even though he was a once a member of the party.
“My vote is not because you are APC, but because you are the kind of governor I have been waiting for; a governor that will develop not only the whole of Delta, but Warri, which was the projected capital of Delta before it was changed; governor that will not emerge by imposition; a governor that will serve the interests of the state and not of godfathers”, he said.
In his brief speech, Omo-Agege stated that he, along with his running mate, Rt. Honourable Friday Osanebi and members of their gubernatorial campaign team were starting their first round of formal consultations with a visit to Clark before they begin visits to various traditional rulers on Saturday.
Omo-Agege said that his developmental impact through infrastructural projects, employment, humanitarian efforts and human capital development positively impacted every town and community in Delta Central Senatorial District, and stressed that he is seeking an opportunity to raise the state to a level where its development can become easily comparable with that of Lagos, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and other leading states.
Omo-Agege lamented the deep deterioration of Warri City and infrastructural facilities across the state over the years, adding that great opportunities exist to boost tourism, road transport, education, employment and the internally-generated revenue profile of the oil-producing state.
“It is said that ‘by their fruits you shall know them’. My achievements in Delta Central Senatorial District and beyond speak for themselves. Among others, we have done solar streetlights, provision of transformers, e-libraries and numerous other projects and we have ensured the allocation of N600 million for the construction of students’ hostel accommodation in Ukwuani Local Government Area.
“Under the 2022 national budget alone, we have over 750 projects; in 2021, we had about 600 and in 2020, we had about 450 projects”, stated Omo-Agege, while reeling out numerous developmental projects, including Federal Polytechnic, Nigerian Law School Campus and several other projects that he facilitated for Delta State within four years.
“The Warri that you grew up in is dead and now in great need of massive urban renewal and, God willing, it is one of the major assignments that our administration will focus on if we emerge as Governor and Deputy Governor of Delta State. Okerenkoko, Ode-Itsekiri and other places can be developed and beautified to accommodate five-star hotels and become huge revenue-yielding areas like Hawaii in the United States.
“We can become what Lagos became; why can’t we generate enough internally-generated revenue to power massive development”? he wondered.
Omo-Agege was accompanied by his running mate, Osanebi; Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Barrister Festus Keyamo; former Minister of the Niger Delta, who is also Director General of the campaign organisation, Elder Godsday Orubebe; state chairman of the party, Chief Omeni Sobotie; former Chairman of the National Social Insurance Trust Fund, Mrs. Ngozi Olejeme; and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Senate President, Dr. Otive Igbuzor.
