Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero says his administration plans to sustain its efforts towards creating massive job opportunities for youths and women through the on-going Agriculture Transformation Programme in the state.

Speaking during campaign tour of Ikara Local Government Area on Thursday, the Governor said part of his administration’s efforts at improving the agriculture value chain process was the reopening of the Ikara Food Processing Company owned by the state which remained closed for over two decades.

He said: “We are committed to improving the agriculture sector to provide opportunities for our teaming unemployed youths in the value chain process. That is why we are happy that the Ikara Food Processing Company has been reopened because it will reduce idleness and restiveness in this area.”

Yero said Ikara has benefited a lot from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) especially under his administration, with the revival of the tomato company, distribution of subsidised fertilizers to farmers and completion of the Soba-Ikara Road.

In the education sector, the Governor said the present administration has upgraded schools in the area to meet global standards with provision of additional teachers, rehabilitation of structures, provision of learning facilities and regular training of teachers.

He added that PDP as a party is endowed with the zeal and will power to develop the people, as all its policies are geared towards creating enabling environment for businesses to grow and to also develop human capacity.

Yero solicited for their support to the party in the forthcoming general elections and urged the people to vote their choice candidates at all levels without fear of intimidation while calling for peaceful polls.

In his welcome address, Chairman of Ikara Local Government, Sekiru Kantoma, said that PDP has made gains in the area with the recent decampment of several members of the opposition to its fold. He assured of a victory for the PDP in the forthcoming general elections.

The PDP campaign train thereafter moved to Chikun Local Government Area, where Governor Yero also pledged his administration’s readiness to provide more basic infrastructure to the people. He recalled that his administration completed several major projects initiated in the last four years, among them the Fourth Kaduna Bridge and Kudenda Road network. Yero pledged to complete all ongoing projects in the area reaffirming that no project has been abandoned by the present administration.

He assured people in the area that his administration is working to ensure improved power supply in the area with the aim of revamping moribund industries that would create more jobs saying: “Very soon, the 215 megawatts power project in Kudenda will be completed and that will attract more industries to Chikun and environs to reduce unemployment.”

•Photo shows Governor Yero.