By DOUGLAS OKORO

Mr. Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says the party will build an egalitarian, free and prosperous Nigeria if elected in 2023.

Obi made the promise on Friday in Abakaliki, while speaking at an event organised in his honour by the Ebonyi chapter of the Civil Society Action Group (CSAG).

Obi who was represented by Sen. Azu Agboti, his Presidential Campaign Coordinator in Ebonyi, urged the people not to lose hope in the Nigerian project saying, ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

He said the Labour Party’s campaign would be issue-based and anchored on addressing social, economic and security issues affecting the people, especially the ordinary Nigerians.

The LP candidate who was endorsed and adopted by the group as their preferred presidential candidate in the 2023 election, thanked the group for endorsing him and other candidates of his party in the state.

“Our campaigns will be issue-based, X-raying our programmes and the agenda we have to further launch Nigeria into the path of progress; prosperity and egalitarianism,” Obi said.

The LP presidential hopeful declared support for Chief Edward Nkwegu, the LP governorship candidate in Ebonyi, saying the endorsement was based on the candidate’s character, competence, capacity and antecedents in human management and wealth creation as an industrialist.

Meanwhile, Nkwegu, the governorship hopeful, said his agenda would guarantee economic transformation in Ebonyi, with bold enablers through rapid industrialisation of the state.

“I’m going to create 13,000 micro small and medium enterprises in two years in Ebonyi, and that will give us indirect employment of about 250, 000 persons in our state,” Nkwegu said.

He expressed confidence that with the industrialisation of the state, the problems of unemployment in Ebonyi would be solved.

He pledged to introduce mechanised agriculture to encourage youths and women to get involved, stressing the need to improve agriculture by introducing modern techniques.

He added: “We will ensure infrastructural enhancement, provision of basic amenities to our people both in the urban and rural communities, first will be reticulation of pipe borne water across our state,” he added.

He said that his administration would embark on mineral exploration and development in Ebonyi to expand the revenue base and economy of the state.

He added: “There will be jobs, jobs and jobs. There will be all-inclusive and sustainable wealth creation.

“These are things that will happen in our economic transformation agenda. In the civic programme, we are going to look at education.

”In the education sector, there will be access to infrastructure, curriculum reformation and relevance in such a way that what our people studying in our schools shall be relevant in contemporary society.

“And under my watch, if I emerge Ebonyi governor in 2023, there will be quality health care and delivery, and also the empowerment of the youth, women and vulnerable people.”

Meanwhile, members of the organisation cutting across the 13 Local Government Areas and 171 wards of the state said their decision to endorse Obi, and Nkwegu was divinely inspired.

Rev. Peter Ezeudo, state coordinator of the group declared the determination of its members to canvass for votes to ensure victory of the LP Presidential candidate and the party’s gubernatorial candidate in Ebonyi. (NAN)

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