Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said Deltans are celebrating unity and peaceful co-existence as a people.
Speaking at an interdenominational thanksgiving service in Asaba yesterday to mark the 27th anniversary of the creation of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa went through memory lane and thanked traditional rulers, religious leaders and all Deltans for agreeing to live together as one and in peace.
“There is a lot of reason to thank God; if you can recall when the state was created, you knew how the state was, but the peace that we witness today is more than enough reason to thank God.
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“The peace that we witness in the state today does not just indicate peace alone, but proof that we are united, our traditional rulers are united and they are speaking with one voice; it was not so in 1991, but we thank God for where we are today, you can feel the impact of that unity and peace in the state.
“We have come to realise we are one people and that we have to work, grow and think together and that whatever development will come to this state has to be one in which it involves everyone and I give God all the Glory,” he said.
The governor urged the people to support his administration, saying, “we will continue to do the best that we can to make our state better.”
He said the Warri Port would be made fully functional in the next few months, and called for support for the companies that will engage in the dredging of the river, disclosing that “a lot of politics have been played in the past concerning the port, we thank God that the contract for the first phase for the dredging has been awarded, my prayer is that our youths and our people should not seek for that which is self-serving and disrupt the work; we as a government, the traditional rulers and the security agencies will not allow that.”
Senior Apostle Sylvanus Okorote in a sermon, called for tolerance among the people, adding that, “to boost our unity, common interests should, at all times, supersede personal interest, we should live in peace because, peace makes leaders to concentrate on development.”
The occasion was attended by the governor’s wife, Dame Edith, his deputy, Burutu Otuaro, House of Assembly Speaker, Sheriff Oborevwori, the Chief Judge, Justice Marshal Umukoro, former deputy governor, Benjamin Elue, national and state lawmakers, traditional rulers and religious leaders.
Meanwhile, former governor of Delta State, James Ibori and his successor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan were, yesterday, absent at the interdenominational thanksgiving service organised by the current administration of Governor Ifeanyi
Okowa to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the creation of the state.
The two former governors have never been absent at state functions since the return of Ibori from London where he served out a jail term for money laundering.
Their absence at the event is coming few days after Uduaghan defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pursue his senatorial ambition, a development that has caused cracks within the once tightly knitted Ibori political family in Delta PDP.