PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has assured that the nightmare of Ajaokuta Steel Company will be addressed if he emerges President in the forthcoming February 25 election.
He also assured that the Inland Port in the State will be developed to help the inland water transportation system in the North and Nigeria as a whole.
Atiku, who stated these during the PDP presidential campaign rally in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, on Saturday, said, “I am very happy with the people of Kogi state for this show of support, show of love, most of the challenges have been enumerated by previous speakers, one of them is the issue of Ajaokuta.
“I want to confirm here that if you give us your support and elect a PDP government, the nightmare of Ajaokuta will be a thing of the past. I assure you this and it is a promise I have made on behalf of PDP.
“I also want to promise you that the issue of your inland port is not only a Kogi issue, but issue of Northern Nigeria, because through the development of the port in Kogi, we also will have access to the maritime transportation in this country, so it is not a Kogi matter, it is our matter for the entire north of the country. I promise you we will implement that program.”
The former Vice President also said there will be no more salary arrears in Kogi State because his administration will support the State to make sure no civil servant is owned salaries.
He added, “From what I have seen from Obajana up to Lokoja, it is thousands of young men and women, we will give you jobs, if we don’t give you jobs, we will give you business to do, I promise to set aside ten billion US dollars to empower our young men and women so that they can live comfortable live.”
He further said University closures will be a thing of the past, adding that students will no longer be out of school for eight months under his watch.
“If you look at Kogi State itself, since PDP stopped governing Kogi State, no development has taken place in this State, everything in Kogi was built by PDP,” Atiku stated.
He added that the APC came and deceived the Kogi people to vote for them, adding that they have now seen that APC meant “poverty, unemployment, insecurity, lack of development and every negative indices in human development.”
He continued, “We appeal to you, we are here not to deceive you, we are men and women of integrity, if you want your next state government to benefit you vote PDP in the presidential election, you will see that by the time we come to conduct the governorship election, we will take over Kogi state and make sure that we deliver good governance.”
On his part, the national chairman of PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, urged the people to support PDP, adding that Nigerians have suffered enough under the APC-led administration.
Ayu said, “Kogi has never disappointed me, they gave me their best, I am asking you for one more time to also give me your best. I have enjoyed what you always give me. This time I am asking you to give me the best president of the fedaral Republic.
“Nigerians including the best people of Kogi state have suffered enough, the last seven years have been hell on earth, you have suffered insecurity, most of you cannot sleep with your eyes closed that the people of Kogi State and many parts of Nigeria have experienced.
“You have suffered poverty. When people was in power you know how much rice was sold, today you know how much a bag of rice is almost N50,000. You don’t have fertilizer to farm, your farms have been taken over by bandits we cannot continue to live in a country of hunger, we cannot continue to live in a country of poverty capital of the world. That is why having experienced the poor governance of our country.
“PDP is coming back. PDP will be back to improve everything that we started. Not many people know that we have spent trillions in Ajakuta in the importation of iron and steel products yet we have the capacity to export all these to the world. When PDP takes over you will see exactly of what we are capable of doing. I want everyone of you to get his PVC, because without your PVC this journey will not be possible. Vote for all our candidates when the time comes and we are going to take back government house Lokoja.
“For now it is important to vote for an experienced leader, somebody who has toured this country around and that person is Atiku Abubakar. I am happy to todat to welcome back home some of our members who made mistake and went to the other side.”
Also speaking, chairman of the PDP presidential campaign council and Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, said, “Kogi State is one of the richest states in this country in terms of solid minerals. The only problem is that we need a business man like Atiku that we give you policies that will encourage people all over the world to come and exploit, extract and bring wealth to Kogi.
“The only person that will do that for you is Atiku Abubakar. I am sure many of you are not happy with the federal road network in the state because this is the center of Nigeria but with Atiku, he will link Kogi state with other parts of Nigeria. Because of the central nature of Kogi state, he has promised that he will concentrate on major road networks and if we have infrastructure, it will be easy to develop Kogi more than this.”