DELTA 2023: PRP Guber Candidate, Edijala Names Bishop Ndidi Umerah As Running Mate As He Unveils Plans to Massively Develop Delta State

ENERHEN/Nigeria: Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) governorship hopeful in Delta State in the upcoming 2023 election, Chief Abel Immanuel Edijala, has named Bishop Glory Ndidi Umerah From Ibussa, as his running mate as he unveils his developmental template for a new Delta state, tagged, “Redeem Delta Mission,” saying he would use his honed experience in politics and business to fix socioeconomic and infrastructural challenges bedeviling the state, and improve the wellbeing of Deltans when he becomes governor.

Edijala made this known, Wednesday 6 July, 2022, in Enerhen, Uvwie local government area of the state, during a press briefing.

Edijala, who prides on his expertise in the marine, oil and gas industries, told journalists that his over 20 years’ experience in the critical business sectors had prepared him for governorship of the state, insisting that he had the capacity to rescue the state from its present state of economic stagnation.

Lamenting the wide spread of poverty and decrepit infrastructure across the state, resulting from poor leadership, Edijala said, “I want to rescue the good people of Delta state from the misfortune occasioned by bad governance. I will use my honed experience in politics and business to change the ugly narrative and improve the wellbeing of our people, our children and children yet unborn.”

He continued, “Delta State is enormously rich, but our people have experienced leadership, trust, fiscal, economic and infrastructure deficits as a result of poor governance.

“I promise to unify our state and break the barriers of disunity created by the wolves in sheep clothing and ethnic bigots who have been in the corridors of power since 1999.”

Speaking further, Edijala proudly unveiled his running mate, saying, “after a careful search for a worthy running mate to fly the flag of my Party, PRP, and with due consideration of who will add value and best serve in that capacity, I have chosen Bishop Glory Ndidi Umerah as my Deputy.  She hails from Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government area of Delta state, and she is the Bishop of the Living Word Faith Fellowship Centre, Kubwa, Abuja and founder of Radient Women Foundation.”

He passionately called on Deltans to key into his transformation agenda, saying, “the time to unlock our potentials is here. ‘Key’ is the symbol of the PRP, and the only instrument we can use to unlock and free ourselves from the bad state we find ourselves today.”

Expatiating on the “Redeem Delta Mission,” Edijala outlined the critical measures his government would put in place to fixing the economic and infrastructural challenges confronting the state.

He said, “as a captain of industry, having spent well over 20 years in the transport sector as well as the oil and gas industry, first as Chairman/CEO of Express Cargo Liner Shipping Company Ltd, an indigenous company, and Chairman of Chart and Capstone Integrated Ltd, a leading brand in the Power, Oil and Gas sectors, I will exhaustively exploit the opportunities in these sectors to rake in huge revenue to catalyse unprecedented socioeconomic growth in the state.”

Emphasizing that a good transport policy will enhance movement of goods and services, improve the supply chain, and catalyse economic growth, Edijala said, “the transport sector, being a key driver of modern economies will be given attention. l will deploy my vast experience in this sector to reshape and revolutionize our intermodal transport system within the four year mandate.”

He emphasized importance of security in building a viral and progressive society and said he would give priority to security and make the sector technology driven.

Edijala reiterated “l am running for the Governorship to give voice to the voiceless, hope to the hopeless and reawaken the virtue of trust and patriotism in Deltans who feel the state has been poorly managed by the one party government of PDP since 1999.”

He stated, “to better the lot of our people, I have come out with an all-inclusive plan of action which I tag the POWER AGENDA. The ‘P’ stands for Productivity berthed on continuous Investments in the Power, Oil and Gas sectors to catalyse speedy Industrial take off and uninterrupted electricity for all households. ‘O’ stands for Order, Security, efficient Justice Delivery, Equitable Allocation of Government Resources using modern management tools and Data to tackle Environmental and Health emergencies. ‘W’ stands for Wealth creation without gender bias. I will have a mix of 70:30 in favour of the youth to drive our 24/7 productive economy, and a reward system for excellence shall be established. ‘E’ stands for qualitative education which shall receive a budgetary allocation of a minimum of 30% to produce the workforce for the Delta Digital Economy that will make us emerge as the “digital factory” for the Nigeria Digital Foundation and providing 21st-century technology, telecom infrastructure and services to Africa and the world. And lastly ‘R’ will focus on reengineering of our Roads, Rail, Ports and other world class infrastructure that will stun developed countries, including affordable Housing, Urban Renewal and Rural Penetration to create clean and blue cities for our people.”

Edijala continued, “We will drive away darkness and ensure electric power is made available for our domestic and industrial needs,” adding that the gas resource in Delta state is enough to unlock all other potentials in the state.

“I have the competency, unrivalled push and connections to develop our vast maritime resources which will result in creating two more sea ports for Oil & Gas and Dry Cargoes at Escravous and Forcados respectively, to enable us attract goods and maritime services to other ports in Warri, Sapele, Koko, and Oghara.” He stated.

He also stated, “We shall invest in Road and Rail Infrastructure to make Delta State the connecting hub of Nigeria from Escravous to Oleri and Itakpe/North and another corridor from Ogulagha to Asaba and Onitsha/East.

“We shall develop a Delta Digital Economy of $50b in the next 5 years which will engage our youth, and drastically ease operations and reduce operating costs for digital businesses.

“We shall unlock the flow of domestic capital into digital businesses, facilitate a booming open-API ecosystem that will support Delta digital innovators through government procurement of innovations from the sector.

“We shall develop brand new technology platforms and new digital ecosystems. “We shall also open up the financial space for our MSMEs, and make agriculture the catalyst and raw materials supply chain for our large scale standardized industrialization whose goods and services will compete favourably with developed countries in the world market space.”

Edijala charged the media to rise up to the occasion to ensure free and fair election, saying, “I want to use this opportunity to call on the media to do an unbiased reporting of issue-based campaigns of the political parties.

“The media has a major obligation to monitor the electoral process and ensure a transparent and credible election.”