Ogbemudia Bassey Osagie, an aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party for the 2024 governorship election in Edo State, has promised to encourage Edo indigenes in the Diaspora to invest in the state in order to boost its economy.
Osagie, a Canadian-based police officer, also promised to develop the state with diasporian remittances, noting that about $32billion diasporian remittances to the country in 2022 was.and that a huge percentage of it came from Edo State indigenes abroad.
He made the promises while interacting with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Benin City.
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While noting that his governorship aspiration has the backing of all Edo sons and daughters in the Diaspora, he said that if he emerged the party’s candidate, the election would be an easy win.
He noted that for investors in the Diaspora to invest in the state, the issue of insecurity must be tackled headlong.
Osagie added that he had visited some Edo sons and daughters who had invested in Europe and North America on the need for them to come home to invest in the state’s economy.
According to him, “What I will do as a governor is to bring Toronto to Edo State so that we will begin to see development.
“Last year, the Diasporian remittances to Nigeria was about $32billion and I can tell you that Edo State has majority of that remittances.
“We are going to ensure that those remittances are used for the state. We are going to encourage our people to come home and invest. We are going to create tax benefit and enabling environment.
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“In Toronto, we have Edo people who have factories. We are going to bring such person home. We have Edo person that have pharmaceutical manufacturing company and I will ensure that they all come home come home to create jobs and establish such industry in the state.
“I am going to ensure that we fixed the bad roads and insecurity and development will be possible. What I am going to do is to build good roads and bridges where necessary.”
He also assured that as a governor there will be no differences between federal and state roads as all roads are being used by the people of the state and not federal government.
He said, after reconstructing the federal roads, his government will do the needful for the Federal Government to reimburse the state for its expenditure.
The Labour Party governorship aspirant also promised to invest in power supply by partnering a Canadian hydrological company.
He noted that uninterrupted power supply was a catalyst to industrialisation and economic development.
