Benue 2019: Akoh hails David Mark for uniting governorship candidates (Photos)

By Yemi Itodo

Deputy Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Benue State, Amb. (Dr.) Dickson Akoh, has lauded former President of the Senate, Dr. David Mark, for his statesmanship effort at uniting candidates of all political parties in Benue state.

Mark had organised a unity dinner in his Otukpo residence, where governorship and deputy governorship candidates of various parties in Benue were invited and charged on peaceful electioneering processes.

Addressing newsmen in his residence at Ogoli Ugboju yesterday, Akoh described Senator Mark as a trailblazer for bringing all contestants under one roof, for the utmost reason of peaceful elections, pledging to ensure his party (SDP) runs issues based campaigns devoid of violence.

Akoh, who is the National Commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria also called on the people of the state to judge him and his principal, Dr. Stephen Hwande, by their antecedents as community development agents.

According to him, his partnership with the SDP guber candidate, Hwande, would spur more rural developments as they would replicate what he (Akoh) has done in his community in Benue as a state.

In his words, “You can’t promise development when you have not developed yourself or your environment.

“Those who are promising development should tell us what they have been able to achieve, even in their own little way.

“In an ideal democracy, leadership is all about packaging. Those who must access power must have something to show for it”.

Akoh, while giving a little account of his community interventions as a private individual, highlighted the police station he singlehandedly built for Ugboju, with the state of arts furnishings, security gadgets and operational vehicle.

He also personally constructed and tarred almost all the streets in Ogoli-Ugboju and its environs, as well as an ongoing gigantic worship edifice for the Catholic faithful ( Holy Family) and construction of primary school blocks with a motorized borehole and furniture at Ogoli, in addition to construction of cultural center known as Ugboju square.

In his rural electrification interventions, Akoh successfully connected the following communities to the national grid, Okpachenyi, Ifete, Ogoli-Ologbe, Otoje in Onyagede local givernment area, as well as donations of 500KVA transformers to Ogoli, donations of electric concrete poles to Okwudu, Alaglanu, Okakle and other parts of Ogobia.

In other to elevate the social status of Ugboju, Dr Akoh, apart from providing his philanthropy that has earned him the title of ‘OYACHABA K’IDOMA’, has also built a three star holiday resort, the best ever in North Central Nigeria, in addition to Peace Corps Academy which is undergoing construction in Ogoli.

The Peace and SDG Ambassador also donated computers to Ugboju Community secondary school with furniture, as well as construction of 14-km rural road from Ogoli-barracks to Onaje in another local government area, with covets.