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Okowa in valedictory session with commissioners.

Okowa and the out-going commissioners.

Ahead of the May 29 commencement of his second term in office, Delta State Governor, Dr  Ifeanyi Okowa today (21/05/19) held valedictory executive council meeting, promising to run an all-inclusive government in his second term as such was instrumental to the success recorded so far in the delivery of policies and programmes by his administration.

The governor who thanked members of the state executive council for their collective efforts and determination which ensured the execution of government programmes and policies to the satisfaction of Deltans, urged them to handover to their Permanent Secretaries before the close of work on Friday, May 24, 2019.

“In the last four years, I have had a working team;  an Exco that realized that we are together and that our success story will be told together and  I am proud to say that it is the collective efforts of each and every one of us that has given us our success stories which also resulted in the resounding victory we recorded at the elections,” Governor Okowa said, adding, “God’s grace was obviously with us but I believe that if each and every one of us had our own different beliefs, working in different ways , I believe that we will not have been able to achieve what we have achieved thus far; so, I will first of all want to thank each and every one of you (members of the state executive council)  for the wonderful comments that you have made this afternoon and appreciate you more for the commitment of each and every one of you in your previous offices in the last four years, because, there is no doubt that you have all been very loyal to the deputy governor and myself and that loyalty has kept the team together; i want to thank each and every one of you; I can rightfully say that none of you betrayed the confidence that I have in you.”

He continued, “in our EXCO meetings, we have had discussions and debates and  I want to thank each one of you for being very frank, I have learnt a lot from individual comments, from ideas that people have which I may not have thought of and I am proud that there was room for us to debate issues;  we talk about an open-door policy and I have had at a point in time to learn that if you are well tutored as a politician, you will have no choice than to run an open-door government. I also realized that my Commissioners never abused that opportunity and I am glad to say that you all handled your duties with integrity and decorum.”

“I must thank you all for agreeing that as an EXCO we will run a realistic budget; I thank God that we have tried to stay within the limit, so, when I looked at our papers and I saw that in the year, 2018 that our performance rate was at 98 per cent, I was very pleased, because realistic budget is important so that when we explain to the people that with this budget this is what we are expected to do and the people at the end of the day see you doing nearly all the things that you said you will do, it is better than to raise the hopes of our people and then dash their hopes at the end of the day; so, I thank you as an EXCO for not allowing our budget to go beyond what was realizable for that year,” Governor Okowa disclosed, and used the occasion to call for internal democracy within the political parties to ensure well qualified candidates contest for elections.

“We give all the glory to God who gave us the grace to take certain steps in our administration and looking at the second tenure there is still a lot to be done and that can only come from God and we thank Him for His grace in our lives and as a government; I want to use this opportunity too to thank all Deltans for the support given to us as a government; the love they have shown to us and to urge and pray that they will continue to guarantee us the peace and the support that they gave us this first tenure and as we look forward to next week as the deputy governor and myself take the oath of office we want to reassure them that we will be there for them, we will continue to strive to improve on the things that we have done and we will looking forward to having the cooperation of the people because working together as a people will make us excel,” the governor said.

Governor Okowa’s Deputy, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro in his comments, thanked members of the EXCO for their commendations and prayers, stating, “I am very honoured to be part of this privileged team; I am very proud of the success stories and I thank our Governor and everybody for the success stories.”

At the session, Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Hon. Joyce Overah who is the Chairman of College of Commissioners thanked Governor Okowa for giving them the opportunity to serve the government and people of the state as Commissioners, stating, “working with you (Governor Okowa), working with your Deputy, we learnt a lot of lessons and we are very grateful; the crew you assembled as Commissioners are very  understanding and we pray that as you enter second term, God will guide you and your Deputy to continue to do it right for our people, the people of Delta State.”

Other Commissioners who spoke at the session include, Chief Fidelis Tilije, Mrs Mary Iyasere, Barr. Newworld Safugha, Dr Mordi Ononye, and  Mrs Omatsola Williams while the Secretary to the State Government, Hon. Festus Agas and the Head of Service, Mr Reginald Bayoko and Prof. Slyvester Monye also, joined the Commissioners to list their experiences working with the Governor and his Deputy and at the end, they profusely, thanked Governor Okowa for giving them the opportunity to contribute to the development of the state.