Tony Osauzo, Benin
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), assured the many neglected rural communities across Edo State on Monday of government attention if he is elected governor in the September 19 election.
The APC candidate made the pledge while commissioning a multi-purpose borehole donated by Professor Steve Iyayi at Iduwengue quarters, Ward 8/Efandion, Uromi in Esan Northeast Local Government Area, as he explained his manifesto, the “Simple Agenda”, to members of the community.
Ize-Iyamu said a community like Iduwengue, with a lot of potential, does not deserve to be neglected, citing its bad roads and the accompanying erosion and the acute shortage of water as implicating the State government of avoidable neglect.
‘Without water there is no way we can live. It is sad that in 2020 we are still talking about communities without water,’ Ize-Iyamu said, commending Prof Iyayi for donating the borehole to his community.
He added that the problem of neglected communities like Idunwengue arise because society has been bereft of quality leadership that should deliver on promises to the people.
‘The government is not that poor. It’s just that we are not getting the kind of leaders that we should have. Leaders who would deliberately go round our State, community by community and look at what they want. It does not take too much.’
He then promised that with his “Simple Agenda”, he can be held accountable when he gets elected as governor of Edo State as he will ensure that his programmes and policies for the all-round development of the state in terms of security, infrastructural development etc, are implemented to the letter.
Earlier, the spokesperson of the community, Mr Augustine Enowe, lamented the lack of potable water and erosion devastation which has ravaged the locality and said that Prof Iyayi is a godsend with the borehole project.
Bishop Clement Ehidiamhen, who dedicated the new borehole, prayed that God makes it possible for Ize-Iyamu to emerge as the next governor in the interest of the people of Edo people, as he commended the donor for his effort.