2023: APGA guber candidate promises to end hawking by Ebonyi youths

Prof. Benard Odoh, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Gubernatorial Candidate in Ebonyi, said he would end hawking by Ebonyi youths in major cities of the country, if elected.

Odoh, a former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), made the promise in a statement issued in Abakaliki and made available to newsmen on Friday.

He described as “worrisome”, the way the youths had taken the lead in hawking in all the major cities in the country.

“Our people hawking in various states of the federation is a worrisome issue.

“I have plans to take them off the streets, wherever they operate.

“My government will vigorously pursue the implementation of a strategic plan I developed as SSG..

“It’s very sad that if you go to Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, and do a quick sampling of the barrow pushers and hawkers there, of every 10 or 20, more than 50 per cent hail from Ebonyi.

“You do that in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, the story is the same. This is very sad,” Odoh said.

He said that as the SSG, he designed a policy that would help to take the natives off the streets of Lagos.

He described the policy as “a very effective idea”, adding that the Lagos State Government indicated interest to ensure it succeeded.

“The state was prepared to provide training centres, implement, monitor and evaluate those processes for six months to one year.

“We are going to run with that programme when we come on board,” the governorship hopeful further said.

“We cannot be a government that will sit in the Government House in Abakaliki and watch our people populate the streets of major cities hawking.

“We will not allow that to happen,” he said.
According to him, the moment we have the right policies in place, our people will return home.

Odoh, a professor of Geophysics, further promised to promote foreign Direct Investments to the state in order to create jobs for the youths.

“We must have people investing in major industries.

“We don’t have production going on in the state right now,” he said.

Odoh also expressed the need to evolve a policy that would encourage investors to invest in the state.

“Investors would not come until the environment is enabling enough for business.

He also spoke on the prospects of APGA in 2023, saying that the party’s team represented the best the people were yearning for. (NAN)