The Abia Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has lauded his Akwa Ibom counterpart, Udom Emmanuel for the giant strides in the areas of industrialization and job creation in Akwa Ibom State, describing the feat as sustainable transformational development.
Ikpeazu who also called on the federal government to urgently intervene in repairing the major roads between his state and Akwa Ibom said their current conditions are inimical to the economic growth of the two neighbouring states.
Leading a delegation of government and party stalwarts from his state to Uyo on a condolence visit, the Abia state Governor, decried the difficulty he encountered in moving from the neighbouring Abia to Akwa Ibom State by road.
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He called for complementary interventions by the federal government to enhance easy transportation among sister states for purpose of trade and off-taking of products from cottage industries, while praying for more grace from God for Governor Emmanuel.
“All that our people ask from the federal government is to be able to move from one location to another so that products from the many factories you are building will find their way to the people in the cities”, Governor Ikpeazu remarked.
“I wish to also commend you for your great strides especially in the areas of job creation and industrialization. It is my prayer and desire that our people will begin to see gradually, some of the trans-generational projects you have embarked upon.
“Unfortunately for us in this country, we tend to celebrate palliative measures rather than sustainable development, but as a child of God I will encourage you to continue to stick to your agenda,” Ikpeazu said.
“I want to pray that our country will see the good works that you are doing and complement it just by helping us to have access to one another. It took me nearly three hours to get to this place. This is unfortunate. I don’t know what will happen when it starts raining. We are pleading and we are appealing.
Ikpeazu who expressed sympathy over the demise of the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Udo Ekpenyong and the former Governor of the state, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, rtd, said his people are deeply grieved by their dead at a time when the state is in dire need of their invaluable contributions.
“It is with a heavy heart that I bring this message of condolence from the people of Abia State on the occasion of the demise of your great people.
“As children of God ours is to love those that God has blessed us within this life and stay together, but it is God’s probity in time to harvest his own. He owns every person and he knows about everything”, he stated.
In his remarks, Governor Emmanuel expressed gratitude for the visit and the words of condolences from Governor Ikpeazu and the Abia state PDP.
Emmanuel pointed out that the recent sad occurrences have thrown Akwa Ibom people into intense grief adding that death, to man, has remained an inevitable destiny and mystery yet to be unravelled.
He prayed to God to give equivalent replacements for the ones lost and admonished that the living is cautious of equating anything with the life of their souls.
According to him, “the worst mystery that God has created that no man can understand is the mystery of death.
“Everyone that is born is bound to die. We really cannot question God. We just hope that God will help us and God does not lack a substitute in life.
“When he removes, he replaces, so our prayer is that those that he has removed, he will replace them with another that will be a 100 fold.
“This is also a lesson to us, that as we are alive, nothing is worth losing our soul for; death is an event nobody can control,” Governor Emmanuel added.
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