Lokoja – Sen. Nicholas Ugbane, former Chairman, Senate Committees on Power, and INEC, on Thursday, declared his intention to contest the Kogi governorship seat on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ugbane, who made the declaration at the party’s secretariat in Lokoja, said his ambition was premised on the desire to turn around the fortunes of the State.
He promised to focus on education, agriculture and industrialisation, among others, if given the mandate to govern the state.
“The population of Kogi is about 1.3 million and I have carefully articulated the problems of the state. I promise to deliver quality service.
“This will be for the socio-economic advancement of the state’’, he said.
Ugbane also pledged to resuscitate the ailing Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), by ensuring its completion and operation to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the state.
“I will make sure that ASCL and the National Iron-Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) come on line to provide jobs for our teeming youths. All it takes is the political will.”
Ugbane also promised to address the infrastructure decay and suffering of the people.
He later presented manifesto tagged: Key Gubernatorial Specifics” to the Chairman of the party in the state, Mr Haddy Ametuo.
He said if elected, his government would ensure prompt payment of salaries to civil servants and teachers and focus on agriculture through conscious move towards agro-industrial development.
Ugbane, who said he had garnered enough experience to govern the state said, added that Kogi has no business being poor, adding that he would harness its potentials for meaningful development.
“The National Assembly is the university for politicians and having been there for eight solid years, I am in the best position to deliver democracy benefits to the people.”
Responding, Ametuo said the state was the least developed in the country and had been in retrogression since 2,000.
He, however, expressed the hope that the next governor which the party would hopefully produce would ensure growth and development of the state.
Ametuo said all aspirants would be given equal opportunity to test their popularity adding that there would be no anointed candidate in the party’s primary. (NAN)