Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The people of Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency in Enugu State had cause to smile recently when their representative at the National Assembly, Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo, held a thanksgiving service, launched projects and distributed empowerment tools for the people at his country home, Uda, Enugu-Ezike.
Encomiums poured in torrents for the federal lawmaker, popularly known as Mr. Integrity, as clergymen, traditional rulers, youth bodies, women groups and his colleagues at the National Assembly gave him kudos for giving an account of his stewardship and for giving his people impactful representation.
Among the items distributed for empowerment were several tricycles, popularly known as Keke NAPEP, motorcycles, generators, sewing machines, grinding machines and bags of rice.
The items were rationally distributed to residents from the 30 wards that make up Igbo-Eze North/Udenu, based on the criteria applied by the lawmaker.
Speaking on the empowerment programme, Agbo said the gesture was in appreciation of the massive support he had been enjoying from the constituents. He said the items were part of his numerous empowerment projects designed to improve the welfare and progress of the people who gave him the mandate to represent them in Abuja.
The lawmaker, who said that he was inspired by what Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had been doing in Enugu State in delivering dividends of democracy to the people of the state, noted that he had provided constituency projects in the areas of education, rural electrification and agriculture.
He recalled that he built and equipped a 500-capacity examination hall with a supervisor’s office at the Community Secondary School, Aguibeje, Igbo-Eze North, just as he built another five-classroom block in Uda, also in Igbo-Eze North.
Other projects he executed, according to him, were rural electrification with new transformer at Uda and Ugbaike in Igbo-Eze North, a storey building comprising 10 classrooms at Technical School, Igugu, Udenu, rural electrification with transformers at Ezim in Udenu, a cassava farm project on two hectares of land at Aguibeje and three poultry farms with 1,000 birds each in Uda, Okpo and Aji communities, respectively.
The legislator also announced that at least nine students studying medicine in different universities were being funded by his Integrity Scholarship Scheme and expressed hope that the beneficiaries would also be of immense value to the constituency upon their graduation.
“Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, known as Gburugburu, is doing so mightily at the state level. I want to support him by adding value to the lives of the people with this,” he said.
One of the speakers at the event, Samuel Enyanwuma, the chairman of a youth body called Egalu Umunano, said the youth were impressed at the empowerment drive, noting that Agbo had shown that he was a man of the people through quality representation. Enyanwuma listed some of the beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme by the lawmaker to include Linda Uzoma Odo, Mayiri Chimobi Ukwaba, Onyinyechi Ugwuja, Uroko Debora Ochanya, Uzochi Ugwueze, Amanda Ali, Amarachi Blessing and Chinwendu Eze.
He expressed delight that the empowerment programme of the lawmaker was also happening at a time when Ugwuanyi was constructing roads in the local government area. He said there was always hope among the people whenever those elected into political office lived up to the expectation of the electorate.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Sulaimon Lasun Yusuf, in a goodwill message to Agbo and the people of his constituency, saluted the lawmaker for his love for his constituents. He noted that Agbo had been committed to passionate representation which, according to him, had enabled the lawmaker to touch lives through the empowerment programmes.
The deputy speaker said the initiative would in no small way touch the lives of the beneficiaries positively, especially in the face of the economic recession which hit the country.
The Association of Town Union Presidents-General, Igbo-Eze North chapter, also felicitated with the lawmaker. In a statement signed by their coordinator, Ifeanyichukwu Odo, the group recalled the various hurdles in the form of litigations that the lawmaker passed through in the early months of his journey to the legislative chambers.
They expressed gratitude that Agbo not only surmounted all the challenges but has since been impacting on the lives of his constituents positively, including securing employment for many people from the constituency.
