Governors now call me ‘Okpekpe marathon man,’ says Oshiomhole

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has revealed that his counterparts now refer to him as the ‘Okpekpe marathon man’ because of his participation in the annual 10km IAAF certified Okpekpe Road Race.

Speaking yesterday while receiving the race’ Local Organising Committee (LOC) led by Dan Ngerem, Oshiomhole said he loves it when he is called the ‘Okpekpe marathon man’ by the governors because it shows the investment in road infrastructure in Okpekpe is not a waste.

According to him, his conviction to open up and expose rural areas to the same opportunities found in the urban cities motivated his administration to embark on aggressive rural road infrastructure.

“Most eloquent and the most potent statement we can make is to aggressively invest in rural infrastructure because our people do not ask us to give them food to eat; they just ask us to give them the enabling environment to apply their intellect, their energy, their creativity so that at least, every two hands can feed every one mouth,” he said.

He added: “The Okpekpe road compares very well and even better with federal roads based on specification, design and even the width of the road because for me, to be rural is not to be inferior and therefore standard should be the same. I do not subscribe to some specification for rural roads another specification for urban roads.

“Your federation adopting the Okpekpe race which is a wonderful initiative is a blessing and thus confirmed that we were right. One of the things I have been accused of since coming here is that I have spent resources of states in building roads that leads to hamlets and I did say that I have no apologies.”