Urhoghide Trains Additional 100 People in Skill Acquisition Programme

By Besiru Enakhimion.

Sen.( Pharm.) Matthew Urhoghide, fondly called, the promise keeper has fulfilled another part of his social contract with the people of Edo South Senatorial District, by training and financially empowering 100 residents of the district.

The training programme tagged, " Intervention Project for Empowerment and Intensive Training of Youths and Women on Agroforestry Enterprises in Edo State", took place at Bishop Kelly Pastoral Center, Benin City, on Wednesday, the 22nd of November, 2023.

100 women and youths selected from the Seven Local Government Areas of the Senatorial District were trained in Nursery Techniques management and seedlings production, Snail farming, Fish farming, Bee keeping and Honey production and Business Enterprises Development by personnel from Ibadan based Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria.

Each of the participants in the programme was given a starter park of One Hundred Thousand naira (#100,000.00).

With the latest training, Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-Three (7,423) people have benefitted from skill acquisition

 programmes facilitated by the ex - Senator. He has also given scholarship to Three Hundred and Sixty-Seven (367) students.

Sen. Urhoghide who disclosed that he had vowed to God to use political office(s) to uplift people, noted that it would have been possible for him to connive with the Institute in charge of the training to share the Ten Million Naira meant for the project, if he were dubious. 

He declared that the resources that are meant for the people should be spent on them.

"I am not doing this because of politics . It is my passion to empower people. I made the promise before my election. I decided to train people because I know there is power in knowledge. There is no knowledge that is a waste ". Sen. Urhoghide noted.

"Since I was elected in 2015, I have been doing this training for all our people in Edo South, regardless of tribe. In as much as you are a resident in Edo South, you will benefit from it, either you voted for me or not". He concluded.

He listed  over 750 Lybian returnees as part of those who had earlier benefitted from his training programmes, adding that some of them have become self -sufficient .

" At a time I shared over 400 Tricycles, each cost the federal government over One Million, Thirty-Eight Thousand Naira ( #1,038,000.00). No youth leader in PDP will tell me I didn't get a tricycle". He boasted.

Sen. Urhoghide who  represented Edo South Senatorial District in the 8th and 9th Nigerian Senate, quit the office five months ago, yet he has not relented in his efforts at providing the dividends of democracy for the people of his constituency .  According to him, he has continued to monitor the projects he had earlier included in the 2023 budget to ensure that members of his constituency benefit from them.

At the training, Sen. Urhoghide disclosed that he sited projects in the 77 wards in Edo South Senatorial District and directed any participant who has not seen any of his projects in his or her ward to inform him. He also promised to verify such claim(s) and provide projects in such ward(s) very soon.

Interestingly, names, addresses and telephone numbers of beneficiaries of programmes/ projects facilitated or sponsored by Sen. Urhoghide as well as location of his projects in the 77 wards are all documented in a book and are verifiable.