Gov Emmanuel to float 4 cottage industries for A’Ibom women

DETERMINED to impact positively on the lives of Akwa Ibom women, Governor Udom Emmanuel, at the weekend, promised to float four cottage industries to cater for the welfare of the womenfolk.

Emmanuel, who dropped the hint at a women rally in Abat, headquarters of Onna Local Government Area, said that the proposed industries would be cited in Eket, Onna, Ibeno and Esit Eket, being the four local government areas that make up the Federal Constituency of Eket.

Although the nature of the companies had not been established, Emmanuel had directed the women to interface with the Commissioner for Finance, Pastor Uwem Andrew Essien, with a view to producing the necessary paper works that would give birth to the firms.

“Let me thank the women of Eket Federal Constituency for deeming it fit to honour me and my wife and to endorse me for second term.

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“For the women, the administration will establish four cottage industries to be cited in the four local government areas that make up the Federal Constituency,” he said.

The women, drawn from the Federal Constituency, had gathered at the Abat Stadium, to pay special tributes to the governor and wife, Martha, for three years of achievements in various sectors of the state’s economy, including industrialisation, infrastructural expansion, social empowerment and political inclusion.

The leader of the Eket Women Forum (EWF), Obongawan Patience Ukpa, said that the endorsement of the governor’s second term ambition became necessary in view of “the administration’s track record of quality achievements in the last three years.”

She commended the governor for what she described as  distribution of the dividends of democracy across the 31 local government areas.

The women of the zone, according to her, would work with others across the 10 Federal constituencies to rally supports for the governor’s re-election in 2019.

To the women, she enjoined them to ensure the governor’s gesture was reciprocated at the polls and, urged them to ensure that “you must get your Permanent Voter’ Cards (PVCs), “because, that will be our only weapon to ensure the administration continues its good works beyond 2019.”

In the same vein, a former Federal Minister, Senator Helen Esuene, who moved a motion for endorsement of the governor’s second term, which was unanimously endorsement by the women, commended the administration for the proposed industries and charged the women to be in the vanguard of Emmanuel’s second term bid.