The Labour Party’s Edo State Governorship Candidate, Mr. Olumide Akpata, has committed to creating an all-inclusive government that would lead to growth and prosperity.
He said this during a town hall meeting with Edo in Diaspora in the United States of America, adding that he would look into intentional measures to reduce flooding in the state, particularly in Benin City, the state capital, if elected.
Furthermore, he stated that no state administration in Edo State could succeed without collaboration with the Diaspora.
Akpata said: “There is no doubt in my mind that Edo State will make great progress if we tap into the potentials that exist in the diaspora, the state will go far because we are smart people anywhere we are and in all my campaigns where I go, people ask us, ‘what do you want to do?’ And I say, Edo State needs our people in the Diaspora more than they need us. I understand the Diaspora Commission Law has been passed and you can be assured that any government that I lead, will localize that Commission immediately because it will be in our best interest to ensure that the state government and the people in Diaspora work hand-in-hand.”
Speaking on his campaigns, Akpata said he has campaigned more than any of the other political parties and their candidates, saying: “The deputy governorship candidate and I have been around the state twice, and the18 local government areas. We have traversed the entire state and we engaged the people and we are getting very encouraging feedback.
What we see in terms of roads is not Nollywood; those are very poor roads that we had to go through to meet people. I refused to use helicopters, which the present governor does.
I decided that I wanted to see and experience what the locals were experiencing, and people greeted us excitedly everywhere we went. He stated that there must be a concerted effort to address the state’s flooding problem and criticised the level of flooding in the state capital, notably the Government Reservation Area, GRA.
The Governorship candidate said: “Flooding is a major problem in Edo state. It is like a design that at certain times of the year it happens, even in the GRA, after the JBS Estate, it becomes a river, you can easily use a canoe there. Ugbor is not spared. The issue is, where is our drainage system?
“Delta state has the same problem, Governor Okowa fixed it, they had their stormwater project and they have fixed it. I have not seen any deliberate effort to fix the drainage system, at least in Benin City. The service lane by Uselu Market is a huge ocean, just one hour of rain the whole place is flooded. So, we intend to tackle it.
“There are contributory factors, we have trash in the gutters. Some sensitisations need to be done, there will be sanctions but the government also needs to put in place proper drainage, we need to engage the experts and find a solution to it.”
