Akpabio, Keyamo assume work, promise accelerated N/Delta devt.

By Miriam Humbe

Newly appointed Minister and Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, on Wednesday assumed office at the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, with the promise to leave huge footprints in the development of the Niger Delta region.
At the reception organized by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, mni, and management staff on Wednesday, the Ministers expressed their readiness to urgently address the developmental needs of the Niger Delta region.
Senator Godswill Akpabio, said that being from the Niger Delta region, he will take the developmental challenges more seriously, confronting and tackling headlong, the issues of capacity building, inadequate infrastructure, poverty alleviation, youth restiveness, entrepreneurship, environmental degradation, amongst others, with the full knowledge that these are challenges negatively affecting the people of the region.
A statement signed by Head, Press and Public Relations Unit, Deworitshe Patricia said Akpabio pledged to work harmoniously with his counterpart to ensure that they lived up to the expectations of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Akpabio added that he loved leaving marks anywhere he worked and called on staff and management of the Ministry to ‘put all hands on deck to ensure that our developmental efforts yield fruits’.
Minister of State, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, who expressed his eagerness to hit the ground running, thanked staff of the Ministry for the warm reception accorded them and pledged to give his best in boosting the confidence imposed in him through their appointment.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, expressed confidence that the appointment of the new Ministers would change the narrative of the Niger Delta region.
She also pledged the commitment of management and staff to the actualization of the vision of the present administration as well as the formulation and execution of policies, projects and programmes geared towards addressing the challenges of the region.
To ensure the ministers succeeded, she urged management and staff to work as a team.
Walson – Jack also expressed the hope that the Ministers would not just pass through the Ministry but leave indelible marks and ‘a legacy of uncommon development in the Niger Delta region.