I will Never Rest Until Okey Ezeh becomes Imo Governor come 29 May – Ogbuehi Amafili

By Emmanuel Ndukwu, OWERRI.

The Imo State Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Egbuehi Val Amafili, has vowed to lead the party to victory during the forthcoming elections. He also said that he will never rest in his oars until the governorship candidate of the party, Sir Okey Ezeh, becomes the governor of Imo State.

Amafili made this known in Isu LGA shortly after handing over the party’s flag to its House of Assembly Candidate for Isu Constituency, Sir Chris Oguzie, on Friday.

“You all can see that I have left everything else to ensure that I personally drive this campaign across Imo State. This is because the SDP has a credible, competent and roundly prepared governorship candidate, Okey Ezeh, who is ready to hit the ground running once elected. His passion for the development of Imo is uncommon, and this explains why we enjoin Imo people to vote right by voting for the SDP,” Amafili appealed.

While addressing the Isu Council of Traditional Rulers earlier, Ezeh bemoaned the lack of opportunities in Imo State for young people and restated his commitment to industrialize Imo State and to unleash the opportunities in the entire agricultural value chain.

“When I graduated from the University of Nigeria in 1991 at the age of 20, I was hired by four multinational companies. Today, our young people leave the universities with absolutely nothing to do. In other climes, people born today are supposed to have more opportunities than people born twenty years ago. But in Imo State things get worse by the day. Imo is not just stagnating; it is regressing.

“One area my administration will prioritize is agro-industrial revolution. This is the quickest way to facilitate job creation and expand opportunities for our teeming young graduates.

“Our strength lies in agriculture, and we must get it right. In 1954, when we had the regions, what the Eastern Region earned from the export of palm oil alone in that year was fifty-four million pounds. If you multiply it by the current exchange rate, there is no state in the South East that has seen that kind of money before. And that was for just one year. Again, remember the palm trees of the time were the natural-growing ones, not the high-yielding, improved species of today that now yield ten times more.

“From palm oil we can produce animal feeds. The husk that is brought out from oil palm can be used to manufacture animal feeds. Industrial lubricants can also be obtained from oil palm. From filtered palm oil we can also get biodiesel. Glycerin, which is useful for the manufacture of soaps, also can be obtained from palm oil. Even fatty acids come from palm oil which can be used for the production of margarine. These are activities that can create a million direct employments if little investments are made in them.

“We have arable farmland that is rich enough to produce yam in export quantities. We can pulverize our yam to transform it to pharmaceutical grade starch, which is in great demand in the international market for the manufacture of drugs, tablets. This will create employment opportunities for our people. Just a kilogram of pharmaceutical grade starch costs thirty dollars and the process of producing it, which is just to reduce the yam to powder form, is a very simple one. The key component of the agricultural policy of my administration shall be to create and revamp all downstream industries, through PPP, that will bring an end to unemployment and make Imo prosperous again,” Ezeh promised.