The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it will establish an industrial development centre in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Managing Director of the commission, Mr. Nsima Ekere disclosed this on Tuesday in Ikot Ekpene during the flag-off of the Entrepreneurship/Agricultural Disbursement Grants for Akwa Ibom North-West (Ikot Ekpene) Senatorial District.

The grant is initiated and sponsored by the representative of the senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Ekere said the NDDC was collaborating with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to set up the centre, located opposite Champion Breweries on Aka – Nung Udoe Road, Uyo, with the aim of training, mentoring and empowering the youths of the state for job creation.

Ekere said, “NDDC is about development and creating jobs to banish poverty. This is what NDDC is all about.”

The NDDC boss commended Akpabio for also working with SMEDAN to empower over 400 indigenes of his senatorial.

“What would you have expected from the uncommon Senator,” he said. “Little wonder the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District declared that wherever you go that they will go with you. I’m not surprised that this senatorial district loves Senator Godswill Akpabio.”

Ekere, who is the Gubernatorial Candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, expressed delight with the overwhelming show of support for him by the people of the senatorial district, declaring that, with similar support from the other two senatorial districts, his victory in the 2019 election was assured.

He promised, on becoming Governor, to complete the Ikot Ekpene – Uyo Road, to open the Four Points-By-Sheraton Hotel in Ikot Ekpene and to build the international market in Ikot-Ekpene, three projects the present State Government had failed to do as promised.

“We must showcase Ikot Ekpene as the commercial city of Akwa Ibom State,” Ekere pledged. “Dry bones shall rise again.”

He enumerated some of the landmark achievements of Akpabio, as Governor in his first term, and pointed out that the incumbent Governor had nothing to show as similar achievements but rather had failed to complete or maintain infrastructure and amenities he inherited.

His words: “Virtually all the things that made us proud as a state have been destroyed by the present State Government.”

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