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…promise to donate another 33-seater bus to the group
By Onogwu Muhammed.
The Chief of Staff to the Kogi State Governor, Hon. Edward Onoja, in collaboration with other government officials of Kogi East extraction have given the Igala Cultural Development Association (ICDA) a facelift by donating a Sharon Bus to the socio-cultural group.
Hon Onoja assured of working collectively with all Governor Bello’s appointees from Kogi East Senatorial District to donate another 33-seater bus to the group, and to also renovate the Igala House before the end of the year.
The Chief of Staff who made the announcement at a meeting of the appointees with the ICDA in Anyigba on Easter Sunday said the Sharon bus would be delivered tomorrow (Tuesday) while the 33-seater bus would arrive at the association’s office in July.
He urged his colleagues in the State Government to work selflessly in ensuring that the living standard of their people is raised unprecedentedly.
“We must show the people that occupy these positions before us that the essence of governance is not for self-aggrandizement, but better life for the people. We must rise up to the yearning and aspirations of our people, so that our names can be written in gold.
“We will pull our resources together to expand and renovate the Igala House in Anyigba, even though the Governor is not Igala he will do for the people what the past Governors of Igala extraction had failed to do. The appointees will prove to them what real governance is all about,” he said.
He lambasted the former Governors of Kogi who believed so much in Igala/Dekina agenda but could not renovate the Igala House at Anyigba or make any meaningful impact in the area.
Onoja said the past leaders from Kogi East had the time, opportunity and resources to make their marks in Igala land but they didn’t do anything because they were not thinking of the people rather their own selfish agenda and how to perpetuate themselves in power in order to enrich their family with State’s fund and to oppress the masses.
He said the emergence of Yahaya Bello was divinely decreed to show the Igala people who their real enemies are.
Onoja said “The Igala agenda they seek to propagate is self serving and totally geared towards perpetuating themselves and cronies in the corridors of power. They had their time and blew it on self enrichment rather than people and kingdom development”.
He seized the opportunity to highlight Governor Bello’s achievements in the areas of security, education and infrastructural development, saying what the Government has achieved in less than two years is highly commendable.
The Chief of Staff dispelled the rumour making the round that the Kogi State University’s Faculty of Medicine has been moved to the Central Senatorial District by the Governor as mischievous, stating that the “Governor is a detribalised personality and will never engage in such act.”
He said the faculty was facing serious accreditation challenges and the Governor has started releasing fund after the committee reports to ensure that the Medical School is fully operational.
Onoja assured that the “faculty will get its full accreditation this year and no part of it will be moved from Anyigba.
He described those who formed various political associations to peddle such lie as enemies of the people.
On his part, the ICDA Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq thanked Onoja, for organising all the Governor’s political appointees from Igala Kingdom to agree in making the Igala House a befitting structure for the association’s activities by the end of the year.
The ICDA Chairman said every Igala person is automatically a member of ICDA, and the people in government at the Lugard House before the emergence of Governor Bello could not do anything to give the association a facelift.
“For many years we made requests to Governor Yahaya Bello’s predecessors in office to help us renovate our dilapidated Igala House, but it all fell on deaf ears. For 19 years, they could not raise a structure where Igala people could converge and discuss issues of progress in their land. This is to prove to all that the Igala agenda they are clamouring for is for political reason. It is detrimental to our progress and we will not subscribe to it,” he said.
Alhaji Sadiq said the objective of ICDA is to foster the development of Igala kingdom and to ensure the existence of peace and harmony between them and their neighbours.
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