By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Front line governorship aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Hon. Engr Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama has promised to push for local government autonomy and use it as a development hub when he mounts the saddle of leadership in the state
Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama stated his position on Wednesday during his interaction with newsmen after he procured his governorship nomination forms at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja.
The aspirant who is the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Culture and Tourism said that he voted for Local Government autonomy while in the house and will use it to develop the grass root.
He said, “My intention is to actually use them as a strong support base because development is going to be both bottom up and up down.
“For me, their autonomy is what I support and at the same time I also think that they will put their programmes and plans before us for rural – urban development”.
The aspirant said that he won election when former governor Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaski were on the saddle and expressed confidence that he will be victorious at the polls. He said that his constituency was same as the incumbent governor and that he has the capacity to floor him at the election.
He said, “My constituency is the capital of Edo state. It may interest you to know that in the first election, I won in 2015 with Adams Oshiomhole as the governor of the state and I was in opposition, my opponent was the sitting speaker from APC.
“The second one, the same thing, the governor (Obaseki) was from my own constituency and from APC and I won again, both elections with double digit lead and no court cases. So convincingly that the people of Edo state and especially my constituency which is the heart of Edo state, have shown clearly that they have confidence in me and I have also been able to show them that I can stand up and represent them”.
He stated further that he will invest in Agriculture and youth capacity empowerment to ensure that Edo becomes the food basket of the nation.
“In Edo state, we used to be the highest and largest producers of palm from NIFOR. Malaysia took seedlings from there and today they are the largest producers of palm. What happened, we still have the same soil, we still have the same land mass, what happened to palm produce, Cassava, rubber, all of these we shall revamp in a very large mechanised scale. The drive is to be able to feed ourselves and to be able to make money from it. We have the land mass, we have the human capacity, the entire value chain is essentially what we are going to drive.’”
