The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Olumide Akpata has promised to ensure there are deliberate efforts to check flooding in the state especially Benin City, the state capital, an effort he said the outgoing government did not do.
Besides, he said there is no state government in Edo State that would succeed without partnering with the people in the Diaspora.
He stated this in a town hall meeting he had with them in the United States of America (USA) where he also said that with him as governor of Edo State, there would be progress and prosperity in an all-inclusive government he intends to form.
Akpata said “There is no doubt in my mind that Edo state will make great progress if we tap into the potentials that exists in the diasporas, Edo 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 need our people in the Diaspora 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 be operation 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.”
On his campaigns, Akpata said he has campaigned more any other of the political parties and their candidates saying “The deputy governorship and I have been around the state twice, 18 local government areas, we have traversed the entire state and we engaged the people and we are getting a kind of feedback that is very encouraging.
“What we see in terms of the roads is not Nollywood, they are the roads, very bad roads that we had to go through to meet the people, I refused to use helicopter like the current governor does, I decided that I want to see and experience what he people are experiencing which is the bad roads and people came out enthusiastically to receive us everywhere we go.”
He said there must be a deliberate effort to solve the flooding problem in the state capital and lamented the level of flooding in the state capital including the so-called Government Reservation Area (GRA).
Akpata 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 once you pass 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 storm water 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 for me we intend to tackle it, there are contributory factors, we have trash in the gutters, there are sensitizations that need to be done, there will be sanctions but government also needs to put in place proper drainage, we need to engage the experts and find a solution to it.”
