Prominent leaders of Okpe Kingdom in Delta State rose from the community summit, on Wednesday, declaring that anyone who wants to succeed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, in 2023, must be prepared to develop the state.

This was contained in a resolution jointly issued by Patrick Akpotor (President General), Kingsley Akpederin (General Secretary) and  Atarhe Abu (National Publicity Secretary) at the end of the summit.

The community leaders insisted that anyone who desires to be governor of Delta State come 2023 must commit to addressing the developmental challenges of the state especially as it concerns the Okpe kingdom.

The community leaders said, “It is also regrettable that many of the link roads for Okpe towns and villages are still untarred despite the huge contributions of mineral resources in revenue generation to the federal and state governments. Both the NDDC and DESOPADEC hardly think of the rural communities of Okpeland.’’

On the much-talked about restructuring of Nigeria, the community leaders declared, “We call on the Federal Government and stakeholders of the Nigerian federation to take the issue of restructuring and devolution of more governmental powers to the federating units of the country seriously.

“We believe that it is with a restructured Nigerian federation that the current myriads of problems bedeviling the country like security and economic development issues can be resolved for progress.”