Ize-Iyamu signs pact with Iyekogba communities

• Promises to protect Churches against planned relocation by APC

By signing a deal, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate in the September 10 governorship polls, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has demonstrated his resolve to help Iyekogba communities.

Ize-Iyamu signed the deal at the palace of the Enogie of Umegbe, Anthony Osayemwenre, at a meeting with the Council of Enigies, elders and youth leaders in the area.

The monarch, who is chairman of the council representing the over 53 communities in Oredo Local Council Area, presented a written document as their wish list.

On the list was a request for the construction of roads, schools and the appointment of Iyekogba indigenes into influential positions in government.

Osayemwenren explained that the communities resolved that their support for any candidate would be dependent on a signed agreement on how to develop the area.

The document, he added, would be a reference point if the candidates are eventually elected.

He lamented that despite their size and contributions to the electoral process, the communities have continually been denied of government infrastructure.

Ize-Iyamu said that he was delighted at the initiative of the communities, which he said he would have no difficulty signing, because all the requests were in consonance with his development drive and that of the PDP.

He added that the party’s representatives at the National Assembly have equally demonstrated the same commitment in the state.

The candidate presented his written manifesto, which he titled the SIMPLE Agenda, articulating how he intends to achieve his development goals.

Ize-Iyamu drew the communities’ attention to a section of the document, where roads in Iyekogba, linking them to Ekewan communities, in Ovia North East Local Council areas would be constructed.

He added that beyond the facilities requested, his government would site industries in the area to create jobs, while promising to support farming and empower the people.

Meanwhile, Ize-Iyamu said at the rally that it was regrettable that eight years after Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s promise to develop Iyekogba, nothing was done.

He explained that the governor concentrated 65 percent of his development efforts in his village, Iyamho.

He urged the people to reject the All Progressives Congress (APC), which, he said, is a continuation of Oshiomhole’s selfish agenda.

In a related development, Ize-Iyamu has promised to respect the sanctity of churches as the houses of God.

He made the pledge at a meeting with the state chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, while reacting to a question on an alleged plan by the APC to relocate all churches in the Government Reservation Areas (GRA) and other places in Benin City.

The candidate added that if not for the fervent prayer of Churches, the crime rate and other anti-social activities in the state would have been unimaginable.

Ize-Iyamu, who is a regional pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the state said: “I cannot destroy my father’s house. It is not the law that should make people afraid, but the word of God. If not for the church, Edo would have been a jungle.”

The Director of Spiritual Gatekeepers, Apostle Great Bamidele, led the assembly of the men of God, who came in hundreds.